AS Scotland’s most decorated athlete, Eilidh Doyle already has all manner of precious metal in her collection. But – as she held off the challenge of her fellow Scot Zoey Clark to claim just her third British indoor title over 400m – she allowed herself for a minute to contemplate her chances of returning to this arena in a fortnight’s time to claim what, even by her standards, would be a special bit of bling. While competing for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast has always been her main priority, she had just run a season’s best of 51.84 which made her the 11th fastest indoor female 400m in the world this year and Doyle knows she can get faster still. Birmingham is the kind of venue which affords her all the home comforts, like the fact her and her coach and husband Brian could even take the dog up with them in the car from their home in Bath.
“I thought I could come here and run sub 52, but you never know how the races are run,” said Doyle. “Any medal to add to the collection would be great but I am just going to go there and take every round as it comes.
“My whole indoor season is really for the Commonwealths, but knowing I am in this sort of shape I should be able to contend with the top girls,” she added. “Leah Springer of the USA is the top in the world and she is 51.2 so that is quite a bit off where I am just now, but hopefully I can get down to that. My fastest indoors was 51.45 from 2013 and I feel like I am in much better shape than I was that year.
Having events at home is just important in general, we always get a much bigger vibe when we are at home. And just logistics as well, not having to travel as far. Getting to run on this track, that is an advantage we have over all the other athletes. It means I can bring my dog as well. We snuck it into the car park, so every five minutes we were nipping out to check that it was ok and still there.”
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