SCOTTISH athletes were on cloud nine yesterday when a record nine of them were confirmed as being part of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow in a fortnight’s time. It is the biggest representation of Scottish athletes in more than 50 years of these continental championships – the previous best was the six-strong contingent we provided in 2015 and 2017 – and they aren’t going just to make up the numbers.
Laura Muir, as usual, leads the charge – hardly unsurprisingly given the nod to defend her 1500m and 3000m crowns from Belgrade two years ago. Having proved her fitness after missing the British trials with a virus, Eilish McColgan joins Muir in the 3,000m – an event in which she took a bronze back in Birmingham – with Jemma Reekie, her 20-year-old training partner, due to line up alongside her in the 1500. If it is Muir’s burden to be the event’s poster girl, she could hardly be in better form: the 25-year-old spent Saturday taking five seconds off Kirsty Wade’s indoor British mile mark which had stood since 1988.
Zoey Clark and Eilidh Doyle also have two shots at a medal, the two Scots named by British Athletics both the individual 400m and the 4x400m relay. While Clark booked her spot by taking the British title last weekend, Doyle – a relay silver medallist in Belgrade two years ago – impressed selectors with her second-placed finish behind Jamaica’s Stephenie Ann MacPherson at the Muller Indoor Grand Prix on Saturday.
In the men’s ranks, while sprinter Adam Thomas joins big hitters like Richard Kilty in narrowly missing out on a 60m slot by dint of falling short of a stringent 6.60second qualifying standard, Scotland’s strength in the endurance ranks is glaring. Guy Learmonth goes in the 800m, Neil Gourley in the 1500m, with Chris O’Hare and Andy Butchart both set to tackle the 3000m. Butchart, whose partner Lynsey Sharp missed out on an 800m slot, earned the third qualifying spot behind O’Hare and England’s Charlie Grice despite failing to finish his 1500m race at the Muller Indoor Grand Prix.
“Firstly, we say many congratulations to all those selected – it is a tremendous achievement,’ said Stephen Maguire, the head of performance and coaching at scottishathletics. “I think for Scottish athletes to compete for GB and NI in a Scottish venue in front of a home crowd will be even more special. Nine is a very strong group and I don’t think we really could have asked for any more.
“I think we have true international class athletes here in Scotland – we’re seeing repeated evidence of that in recent performances. And their goals will be the podium or places in finals.”
Maguire is reluctant to put a precise target on medal numbers but fancies out chances of Scottish success. “Medals will be hard to come by at Glasgow 2019,” he said. “There’s talent there in Europe. But we should not be afraid with what we’ve got.
“One or two medals? My aspirations might be a little bit more than that but indoor athletics is hard to predict. But I’d be very confident that Scots can perform very well indeed at the Emirates Arena in a couple of weeks.”
So strong is Scotland’s strength and depth in middle distance running that the selectors can even choose to ignore one of the other striking performances over the weekend, Josh Kerr’s PB of 3.35.72 over 1500m in a race where Ethiopia’s Samuel Tefera re-wrote the world 1500m record enough to break the Scottish record. Kerr, currently studying for a Masters in business out in New Mexico, decided not to attend the British trials last weekend and the selection panel decided not to make an exception for him.
“It is a shame for Josh, I guess, when you are running like that,” said O’Hare, also based Stateside. “It obviously sucks for him. But if he wanted to run, he had to do what everybody else did, and come back for the trials. This week will be valuable so me and Butchy will get over to the Emirates early and get some work done.”
Andy Butchart of Central AC (Terrence Mahon) 3000m
Zoey Clark of Aberdeen AAC (Eddie McKenna) 400m and 4 x 400m Relay
Eilidh Doyle of Pitreavie AAC (Brian Doyle) 400m and 4 x 400m Relay
Neil Gourley of Giffnock North AC (Mark Rowland) 1500m
Guy Learmonth of Lasswade AC (Henry Gray) 800m
Eilish McColgan of Dundee Hawkhill (Liz Nuttall) 3000m
Laura Muir of Dundee Hawkhill (Andy Young) 1500m and 3000m
Chris O’Hare of Edinburgh AC (Terrence Mahon) 3000m
Jemma Reekie of Kilbarchan AAC (Andy Young) 1500m
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