Steph Twell, newly signed by Scotland, made an instant impact, blowing the rankings apart in her first overseas race since declaring for the country of her mother, Isobel, last night in Monaco.
Steph Twell, newly signed by Scotland, made an instant impact, blowing the rankings apart in her first overseas race since declaring for the country of her mother, Isobel, last night in Monaco.
The 19-year-old from Aldershot celebrated her selection by Britain for the World Championships in Berlin when she finished eighth in the fastest time of her life, 4min 3.48sec.
This instantly promotes her to third fastest on the Scottish all-time rankings behind iconic rivals Yvonne Murray and Liz McColgan whose times were set in the same race in Oslo 22 years ago.
Twell was more than two seconds inside the Scottish under-20 record set in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics by Lynne MacDougall, but the Glasgow woman will retain that because Twell will be 20 on August 19 - missing out by just 12 days. She would need to be under 20 on August 31.
Commonwealth champion Lisa Dobriskey was fifth in 4:02.28, just 0.18 slower than in the Olympic final last year, with Hannah England (4:04.29) close behind Twell.
It confirms GB selectors resolved the 1500m debate correctly when they named the Berlin squad earlier.
Yet it's disappointing that just three Scots, and only one selected for an individual event and developed on home soil, are in the GB team.
Eilidh Child was chosen at 400 metres hurdles, and Lee McConnell for the 4 x 400m.
Just one day after the launch of the three-year countdown to the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, and less than a week after the fiveyear equivalent for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, such a poor presence should be pressing alarm bells for the sport. The appointment of an inspirational national coach becomes increasingly important. Interviews are due to begin early next month.
There were only two Scots in Osaka in 2007 (steeplechaser Andrew Lemoncello and McConnell, in the relay).
There were seven in Helsinki in 2005, matching the best ever, at the inaugural event in 1983.
But since 1999, when Sinead Dudgeon (400m hurdles) was the sole Scot, only two men, Lemoncello and hurdler Allan Scott have been good enough to win a GB vest on the world stage - two in five editions over 10 years.
At British level, only one male among the team of 32 is ranked in the top five in his event this year: Olympic triple jump silver medallist Phillips Idowu. He's fifth behind the Portuguese Olympic champion Nelson Evora and three spring-heeled Cubans.
No other British male is ranked in the top 10 in any event, However, sprint hurdler Andy Turner (14th) comes down to sixth if you ignore a slew of Americans (you can enter only three per event), and 400m hurdler David Greene (11th) improves to eighth. He was seventh in Monaco last night, with 49.04.
Only two other British men: Michael Bingham (400m, 15th) and Olympic silver medallist Germaine Mason (high jump, 14th) are ranked in the global top 20 on official lists.
Child and Twell are two of only eight British women ranked in the world top 20 this year, while Jessica Ennis, No.1 in the heptathlon, is the sole UK woman in the top 10.
