Chris O’Hare claims he’s edging back to his best after landing a superb victory at the Adidas Boost Games in Boston.
The 26-year-old Scot, now clear of the nerve issues in his knee that doomed his Olympic hopes last summer, scampered ahead on the last lap to win the 1,500 metres in 3:39.31.
Three strong showings on the American circuit, including at the Oxy meeting in LA and the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon, has left the two-time European bronze medallist in buoyant mood with the standard for August’s world championships in London already in the bag. But it’s been a matter of shaking off the ring rust, O’Hare admits, following his unwelcome spell on the sidelines.
“I'm fit,” he said. “It’s sometimes harder because I didn’t have an indoor season. We didn’t start running until December. It’s sometimes hard to get rolling outdoors when you’ve not raced for six months or so. At Stanford, it showed I’d forgotten how to do it but I put that behind me and I’ve had three good races. Oxy and this were good and Pre was OK.”
Domestic rivals Jake Wightman lowered his 800 metres personal best for the second time in a month by taking fifth place in 1:46.07, the seventh-quickest time ever by a Scot while Lynsey Sharp was fourth in the women’s 800m in 2:01.13. And O’Hare insists Scotland’s middle-distance pack are feeding off one another.
“You see good performances and it makes it all the more realistic to compete on a world stage when you see Laura Muir killing it,” he said. “You think if she can do it, why shouldn’t I do it too?”
Elsewhere, Olympic semi-finalist Lennie Waite lowered the British record in the rarely-run 2000 metres steeplechase to 6:21.31 at the Rice Invitational in Texas.
Pitreavie prospect Jack Lawrie moved into fourth place in the all-time Scottish 400m hurdles rankings with a lifetime best of 50.55 secs at Lee Valley, just 0.05 outside the European Under-23 championship standard.
While Zoey Clark and Alisha Rees were both within the six fastest times ever by a Scot over 200m in the British Women’s League match at Eton, running wind-assisted 23.14 and 23.30 secs respectively.
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