GUY Learmonth could not quite replicate his 2014 heroics to take 800m victory in the Sainsbury's Glasgow International Match at the Emirates Arena yesterday.
But the ambitious 22-year-old from Berwick-upon-Tweed still felt his season's best of 1.48.59secs was a step in the right direction towards achieving his season's goals, which include reaching the European indoor championship finals in Prague in March and making the UK team for the world championships in Beijing. Once that lot is out the way, he can start focusing on next year's Olympics in Rio.
Clad in the coveted ACE vest, which denotes Scotland's joker, whose points won are automatically doubled in the final standings, Learmonth went out too slow and ultimately ran out of track when attempting to overhaul Robin Schembera in the closing straight, coming in second behind the German's time of 1.48.41secs. While six points for the Scottish tally was hardly a disaster, simply feeling the weight of expectation was an honour for a man who came to prominence here 12 months back with a surprise victory against Olympic 800m finalist Andrew Osagie and then chased world-class athletes such as David Rudisha and Botswana's Nijel Amos in finishing sixth in the Commonwealth Games.
"I didn't want to run like that at all, I wanted to get to the front but I was just a little rusty coming off the mark," said Learmonth, just back from warm weather training in Tenerife. "But it's my first race and it's blown away the cobwebs.
"The pressure wasn't too bad, it wasn't as much as trying to qualify for the final at the Commonwealth Games. It was actually a bit of an honour for me to get that vest. I've got a lot of faith in the Scotland team and they have a lot of faith in me. In the hotel a lot of people have been asking for advice, which has been nice and I'm more than willing to help everyone. Running in this kind of atmosphere, against international competition, can only help. That's what it's going to be like in Prague - those types of races, working off slow paces, and I need to practise and get experience from them.
"The aim for me was to front run it and I was just off the mark. I was too slow over the first 50 and then the gameplan changed - it was one of those burn-ups over the last 20 unfortunately. I almost got it but almost isn't good enough. I have to make sure I rectify that. As soon as your name was announced, the big cheers were amazing. Unfortunately, I couldn't win like last year but it was still good."
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