Chris O’Hare will be part of another record strength Scottish contingent at a major championships after proving himself the senior man as Scotland’s middle distance men lived up to expectations in Birmingham yesterday.

For the first time ever Scots claimed all three podium spots as well as fourth place in the 1500 metres at the British Championships, but it came close to not happening for the Edinburgh runner who made a late decision to run.

He finally took to the start line only after intensive treatment from his coach and physio and even then the Olympian had doubts about his prospects against a posse of compatriots who have metaphorically been snapping at his heels and were set to do so for real.

“Warming up was scary,” he revealed afterwards. “I spent most of it on the physio bed just trying to not have it cramp up on me when I do a stride, so that was worrying and I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to start and even at the start I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to finish, but thankfully it was slow and I could just focus on keeping my knee drive up and not working my hamstrings up all that much. Then, with 300 to go I just thought ‘This is training now, I’ve just got to get it done like I do there.’ It was sore in the last 100 but not sore enough.”

What he had to weigh up was the risk of doing longer term – potentially season wrecking – damage in the context of the chance that along with his record he might be able to do enough at next week’s Anniversary Games in London to convince the selectors to give him the third available place on the World Championship team, alongside those qualifying automatically by finishing first and second.

“There’s that discretionary spot on the team and the thought goes through your head as to whether it would be better to not run, have a good race in London next week and try to prove I’m one of the best as opposed to run today, blow out the hamstring and the season be done,” O’Hare noted.

Instead he can now relax and focus on using next weekend at the Olympic Stadium to prepare for the bigger gathering there later in the summer.

“Next weekend’s a good opportunity to see the stadium, run for the crowd and just have fun,” he said.

Naturally he admitted to considerable satisfaction at having found enough to put the whipper-snappers in their place with Josh Kerr, formerly trained by O’Hare’s father, snatching second from Jake Wightman, the form horse coming into the Championships, while Glasgow’s Neil Gourley claimed fourth.

“I was looking at the start list and thought: ‘I’m actually the second oldest guy in this field. That’s the first time that’s ever happened,’ so it was good to lead the young guys and show them the old dad has still got some tricks up his sleeve,” the veteran of 26 joked afterwards.

It is Wightman, then, who faces a nervous week, wondering if he has done enough already this season or can confirm his place next weekend.

“I’m gutted,” he said. “I was going for the win obviously, so when Chris went I knew it was hard to get. I thought second, but Josh just got me in the end. I didn’t see him so I didn’t have a clue, but I wouldn’t have been able to stop him as he was coming so quick.

“I don’t know if they’re going to make London [the Muller Anniversary Games] a run off, which I hope they don’t because I’d quite like that to be it. I thought the selection would be made today if I got the top two, but I’ve put myself in a rubbish position now. It just would have been nice to know today whether I’m in or not. It’s going to be a horrible next week now, but that’s my own fault. I had it in my own hands.”

For Kerr it has been something of a breakthrough season and he admitted that, while he believed he has done enough for his rivals to take him seriously – notably in winning both the indoor mile and outdoor 1500m in the USA’s prestigious NCAA Championships this year – he had literally sought to sneak through.

“I did try to make sure I wasn’t making a ton of noise so he didn’t know I was coming as much because I was all out down that home stretch and I had nothing else,” he said.

“I knew I had nothing and I had to dip and if he’d pushed that extra bit he’d have got me. I think we were both just pushing and giving it all we had. It was a great fun race to be part of.”

Their combined efforts were, meanwhile, sufficient to allow O’Hare to use this evidence of the present quality and future potential of Scottish athletics to make a telling point about both the heritage of the sport and what should be done to protect its interests moving forward, by encouraging investment in the nation’s most famous athletics venue.

“It’s good to know we’re getting it done together with all three guys who grew up training at Meadowbank,” he observed. “If that’s not an advert for keeping Meadowbank Stadium and maybe renovating it a little bit, I don’t know what is.”