AT the beginning of 2018, Harriet Knowles-Jones was primed to take her athletics career to the next level.

She had finished her time as a junior with a dominant under 20s gold medal at the European Cross Country Championships having represented the Great Britain senior team on the track for the first time months earlier.

Now, the Warrington Athletics Club star is almost having to start completely from scratch.

The 20-year-old fell ill last March and was eventually diagnosed with glandular fever, meaning her first year as a senior athlete was wiped out.

It has been almost a year since her last race, but she is slowly building herself up in training to be able to return.

The former Lymm High School student, who now studies at Manchester University, opened up to the Guardian about the illness that has set her rapid progression back.

“I got ill in March and my training went downhill but we couldn’t figure out what it was,” she said.

“We didn’t find out it was glandular fever until a few months later. I thought it was low iron at first, because I’ve had that in the past.

“I was feeling really fatigued even after short runs. I managed to complete my junior season, but haven’t raced since.

“The gap between junior and senior athletics is a big one to bridge anyway, so having all of this time off has not been ideal.

“It was right before my exams that I found out what was wrong. I was still in university and was able to do my exams, but it was an interesting time!

“I tried to train through it and I felt like I was keeping on top of it until I stopped. Then it started to hit me quite hard.

“I couldn’t manage more than a 20-minute run. I was sleeping a lot during the day, which shouldn’t really be happening at 20 years old.”

Knowles-Jones, who also attended Ravenbank Primary School, also picked up a 1500m bronze medal at the European Athletics under 20s Championships in July 2017.

She had started 2018 with three straight cross-country wins before falling ill, but she has already had to abort one attempted comeback.

She is now happy with how her training is going again but insists she will not return to racing until she is 100 per cent ready.

A return before the end of the cross country season looks unlikely, however.

“I started training again at the end of summer, but it didn’t go so well,” she said.

“I was getting fit, but my times were getting slower and slower.

“I’m feeling good at training. I’m closer to racing than I was before, but I’m still a way off. We’re aiming for the start of the track season.

“My endurance seems to be pretty built-in and I’ve never really lost it.

“As soon as I was able to run again, I could do long distances without too much of a problem. It’s the higher intensity sessions that hit hardest.

“I don’t want to take on a race until I’m back at full fitness, but I want to make up for lost time.

“My mum has been amazing through the whole thing.

“She was making sure I saw the best doctors, got in touch with people with similar experiences and just generally supported me when things weren’t going well.

“She made the whole experience a lot easier.”