GUY Learmonth made a vow to himself not to attend his big brother Max’s wedding this Saturday. Even if he wasn’t preparing for this week’s World Indoors Championships in Birmingham, he still wanted to give himself the big Commonwealth Games send off in front of the Scottish fans at this Sunday’s Muller Grand Prix.
That was all before the ankle injury in training – sustained in a late-night session on the old A1 – which stopped his indoor season in its tracks, but thankfully Learmonth is back on the right road as far as his Commonwealth Games preparations are concerned, even if, after a recent cold, he sees no reason to risk the joint this Sunday in Glasgow. It all means that he gets the chance to gatecrash his brother’s party at Knowsley Hall near Liverpool and then attempt to do likewise to world class middle-distance runners like Nijel Amos on the Gold Coast. “Being selfish, I didn’t really want to be going to his wedding,” said Learmonth, as he collected his Commonwealth Games kit at the Team Scotland camp at Dunblane Hydro yesterday. “But I’m going to it now and maybe it’s fate. I think he was always hoping I’d be there. I told him straight up that I wasn’t. Now I’ve told him if he needs a speech or anything I’ll be there. A Q and A or anything? I’ll be there!
“No, I think he’s got it all organised,” he added. “I’m sleeping on my pal’s floor on his hotel room. It’s not the best preparation but I think they’ll be drunk so I’ll get the bed or the bathroom. I’ll maybe tell them I’ve got a bad back to make sure I get the bed but my mate said he’ll be so drunk he’ll be asleep in the bath anyway.”
Learmonth, who made the semi-finals in last year’s World Championships in London, fondly recalls coming of age with sixth place finish overall in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014. He wasn’t about to let a freak injury stand in the way of his return to that stage at the Gold Coast. As frustrating as the two-week lay-off has been, he still feels in great shape after a couple of months of warm-weather training in Portugal.
“I was doing drills on my local track back home,” he said. “It’s not actually a track, it’s on the old A1. It’s on roads and pavements and stuff. I was doing drills on a Friday night. I was flying to Germany on the Monday and came off the kerb and landed really awkwardly. It’s been a glamorised sprained ankle with a bit of bruising that’s set me back a few weeks. Thankfully there’s been no long-term damage. All my winter went great this year. The things I’ve worked on from endurance and aerobics has been amazing. Having two weeks of no running isn’t going alter that at all. It has freed things up so I hope it’s a blessing in disguise.”
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