AT the age of 16, Erin Wallace has time on her side but her instinct is to hurry. Already a British international in 2017 at last weekend’s Great Edinburgh International, the Giffnock prospect took 1500 metres bronze at last summer’s European Youth Championships in Tbilisi to complement a haul of British age-group records in her possession.
If it feels like there is a production line of talent coming through Scottish athletics, then the likes of Wallace and fellow prodigy Jemma Reekie are poised to keep the wheels turning. But the teenager admits being part of the race at the Emirates Arena in which Laura Muir smashed the UK indoor record over 5000m six days ago showed just what will be required to follow in her footsteps.
“That was insane,” Wallace said. “I collapsed at the side of the track but Laura kept going for 2000m by herself. It was so good to watch. I was still recovering on the ground when she was finishing. She was ahead of me the whole way and I was blown away over how she can keep going for so long at that pace.”
Role models are not hard to find. In Edinburgh, where her hopes of a high placing where dashed by a mid-race spiking and then compounded by getting bundled over at the finish, she found herself in proximity to Mo Farah where his presence in the GB&NI team meeting had many agog.
“It was so cool,” she admitted. “I’ve only ever seen Mo on TV. Never in person before. But because we were in the same team. I was sitting close to him. I didn’t go up and chat because I’m quite shy but it was still great.”
The memory will sit along side the selfie she procured with Usain Bolt at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. However Reekie – who has also competed in triathlon for the UK – is picturing further progress, potentially a qualifying mark for the Commonwealth Youth Games this weekend. The road to senior success remains long but the small quick steps now, she hopes, will strengthen her ambition to survive the growing pains.
“I feel like all of these are just learning experiences for when you’re older,” she said. “They matter at this stage but not as much as what they would do later on.”
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