WHETHER it is via the high road or the low road, Eilidh Doyle loves coming back to Scotland. She has twice found an excuse to participate in low key events at the Emirates Arena already this year, and today’s Muller Glasgow Grand Prix back in the East End of Glasgow provides another opportunity.
But soon that return journey from the home near Bath which she shares with her husband and coach Brian and the dog Ben will be undertaken on a permanent basis. It has long been one of the 31-year-old’s life goals to return north of the border to live and now, in what is either an Indian summer or the Autumn of her athletics career, the retirement of her long-term coach Malcolm Arnold means she no longer has the same reason to be exiled in England.
Once a packed season which includes next week’s World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and the European Championships in Berlin is out of the way, Doyle gives the impression that she can’t wait to get back on the other side of the border. Our top performing athletes are scattered far and wide, but with a world-class athlete such as Doyle’s fellow Kinross High School alumnus Laura Muir already based up here, her return will be another feather in the cap for what Scottish athletics has to offer.
“What is the timeline for moving back up?” said Doyle. “Probably at the end of the season, we don’t really need to be in Bath anymore because Malcolm isn’t there anymore. We have a flat down there so were looking to sell up and move on but just with me being away out in Australia for so long it is a really busy year. So I’ll get this year out the way first, but I’ll probably be moving around September to Christmas this year, so I will be back up in Scotland for next season.
“I honestly have just had so much support from Scottish athletics over the years. Really my whole reason for moving away was Malcolm, to be coached by who I think is the best hurdles coach in the world really, and whenever I come back up to Scotland to train there is always so much support in terms of the institute and the coaching facilities, the people at Grangemouth are always very accommodating. I always have a great time up there and when I move back up I will be happy just to get back into that swing of things. There is a really nice vibe up in Scotland right now. Like myself, Zoey and Beth [Dobbin] in the 400m, we all warmed up together in Birmingham for the trials last weekend, it is just a nice atmosphere right now.”
It is little wonder, mind you, if Doyle has enough on her mind right now to put her flitting on the back burner. One part of a contingent of Scots at today’s event which include her fellow World Indoors qualifier Mhairi Hendry and Jake Wightman - and other luminaries such as Lynsey Sharp, Steph Twell, Jemma Reekie and Maria Lyle - the 31-year-old will put her early season form over 400m flat to the test against a class field which includes Phyllis Francis, the world champion from London last year over that distance, and her long-term 400m hurdles adversary, Kaliese Spencer of Jamaica.
“Sunday is going to be really exciting,” said Doyle. “We have got the World Indoor qualifying out the way now, so we can just go there and not have the pressure of trying to get qualifying times or prove fitness. We can just really enjoy it, and there will be some really big names up there in Glasgow.
“It is also a chance to compete in Scotland again. And I am really glad I did my first few races up in Scotland this year because I have had a chance to practice on that track. All indoor tracks are different, but hopefully I can go up there and run well again.
“I don’t really race in Glasgow that much so the last time I was there I had to ask where the toilets were and the call-up room was! But my family are going to come and watch, I’ll have my niece and nephew there, and they never really get to see me run, apart from when they see me on the telly, so it is really nice to have that too.”
Doyle is already Scotland’s most decorated athlete and at 31 she says she feels in better shape than she was five years ago, when she took a European indoor silver medal over this distance in Gothenburg.
“My fastest indoors was 51.45 from 2013 and I feel like I am in much better shape than I was that year,” she said. “I do 400m flat more indoors than I do outdoors. Everybody keeps talking about how old I am but I do still love it and my body is still letting me run fast. If that balance still keeps on then I still plan to continue.
“When I do stop racing, I definitely want to stay involved because I do still love it. Even last weekend, there were so many other races that I wanted to watch but I had to go and warm up. I think it is really important that people who have been there and experienced it can help out in any way they can. But whether I go straight into coaching or not I don’t know. I am not sure I have the patience!”
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