Perri Shakes-Drayton believes her growing rivalry with Eilidh Child can spur both Britons into the Olympic 400 metres hurdles final.
The pair go head-to-head again tonight at the Diamond League meeting at Crystal Palace, three weeks after Shakes-Drayton overhauled the Scot to win the UK Championships in Birmingham.
The race, potentially their final chance of preparation ahead of the Games, pits both against a field that includes Jamaica's Kaliese Spencer, as well as European champion Irina Davydova.
However, the battle for supremacy within the British squad provides an extra incentive for Shakes-Drayton.
"You need that rivalry because athletes tend to become too complacent if it's too easy," she said. "I knew it wouldn't be easy at the trials with Eilidh in the race and that's what we need. We're pushing each other. We both want to beat each other and that's good."
The pair might also be team-mates for GB in the 4x400 metres relay in London but after both missed out on last year's world championship final, Shakes-Drayton admits the target for her and Child must be the Olympic hurdles finale.
"There's a few athletes out there capable of doing it but it would be great if we both did it for Great Britain," she said. "It's good to see both of us running world-class times."
Eilish McColgan, who struggled in a low-key 1500m earlier this week, has opted out of the 3000m steeplechase in the London meeting in favour of the 5000m, while Lynsey Sharp will not run in the 800m avoiding a controversial meeting with Marilyn Okoro. The European silver medallist will instead run for Scotland in a 400m relay next week in Cardiff.
"There was an option of competing in the Diamond League in Monaco on July 20 instead of Crystal Palace but after talking to my coach we felt this was the best schedule for me," said Sharp. "Scotland women had a great 4x400m relay effort when winning at the Loughborough International and everyone is involved except Eilidh Child."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article