Eilish McColgan smashed her personal best to take second place in the 1500 metres at the ITSAF Grand Prix in Berlin on Sunday.
The 26-year-old was runner-up to home favourite Konstanze Klosterhalfen in 4:01.60, over two seconds quicker than her previous quickest time.
And McColgan – who was just 0.22 off her mother Liz’s lifetime mark – revealed she has postponed any plans to move up to 10,000 metres next year because of the progress made during 2017.
“In previous years, I felt I’d move up the distances,” she said. “But I’ve learnt I’ve more speed than I originally thought. I feel I’m capable of breaking 8:30 for 3000m. That’s pretty fast. I’m not sure many 10,000 runners could do that.
“So a shift up is now probably a couple of years away. If I got a good winter behind me, it might be a possibility but the priority is the 5000, for now.”
The world championship finalist was set to finish her track season over 5,000m in Friday’s Diamond League final in Brussels but could now search for another 1,500m for a possible tilt at the four-minute mark.
“I might even do another one after Brussels before finishing off my season with a road mile in New York on 10 September,” McColgan admitted.
Elsewhere in the German capital, Andy Butchart was fourth in the 5,000m in 13:12.74 and Dina Asher-Smith won the 200m in 22.41 secs. While South African star Caster Semenya rounded off a season that brought world 800m gold and 1500m bronze by running the fastest 600 metres in history of 1:21.77.
“The 600 is a bit easier compared to the 800,” she said. “Basically, it was only 400m sprint with the focus in the last metres to the finish. And I love the speed so I liked it.”
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