SO much running did Eilish McColgan do at this weekend’s British Indoor Championships in Birmingham that by the end it seemed like even the DJ was having some fun at her expense. The 27-year-old - who was out qualifying in the heats of the 1500m on Saturday evening little more than an hour after claiming silver in the 3,000m behind a rampant Laura Muir – showed no ill effects from her increased workload as she outclassed a field led home by England’s Katie Snowden for victory in a time of 4.13.94. As she uncomplainingly hot-footed it over to a specially-constructed podium last night to be crowned 1500m champion, the playlist mischievously clicked onto the Proclaimers and that old crowd pleaser about the merits of walking 500 miles.
If the subtext of this weekend’s championships was convincing the selectors that you are worthy of competing back at this very same arena in Birmingham in two weeks’ time, it certainly cannot be said that McColgan didn’t go the extra mile. Indeed, after years of serious foot problems exacerbated by competing in the steeplechase, there is an increasing suggestion that McColgan’s career is just getting going.
Her victory here rounded off another fine weekend for Scottish athletics, a fourth gold medal and a ninth medal of all precisely equalling the national tally from this event 12 months ago, despite the no shows of strong medal hopes such as Chris O’Hare, Josh Kerr and Steph Twell to name but a few, and at a games where the strength and depth was widely thought to be better than ever. While the final decisions will rest with the selectors when their final determinations for the World Indoors team are made clear on Tuesday, it now appears entirely likely that both Muir and McColgan, two athletes who have been running together at the Dundee Hawkhill club for years, will both double up to take on the world in both the 1500m and the 3000m.
“I hope I’ve done enough to get selected for the 3000m,” said McColgan, whose countrywoman Jemma Reekie was back in fifth. “I feel I’m in close to my personal best shape and I want to go to worlds and show what I can do. The 3000m is my priority but I’d love to get under 4:05 in the 1500 as well and if I can double up, I’d like to do it.
“It would also give me an indicator for the Commonwealths when I’ll need to decide whether to do the 5000m and 1500m,” she added. “It would be amazing for my club and for the kids to see me and Laura both doubling up at a world championships. It’s exciting and hopefully it will inspire the kids.”
For McColgan, who it also emerged had shrugged off a pre-tournament illness, picked up when racing in Madrid in midweek, perhaps the best news of all is the fact that body and mind now seems robust enough to deal with these demands.
“I knew it was going to be tough,” said McColgan. “Flying back from Kenya I felt flat and tired. I picked up a cold when I raced in Madrid in midweek and I felt a bit sluggish when I came here. I spent Monday, Tuesday in my bed, Wednesday panicking, then I went for a jog on Friday and thought ‘I can do the trials.’
“The 3000m was a shock to the system. But it did wake me up a bit. By the time I got off the track and they were trying to give me the champagne bottle for the 3000m I only had 15 minutes before I had to be in the call room again. I took my trainers off then realised I had to put them back on again. Assuming I double up at the world indoors, I’ll at least have a day between, but this was good training.
“I didn’t execute how I wanted on Saturday but now I’m excited - the biggest thing for me is not being injured,” she added. “I still tore my calf and my hamstring last year but instead of nine months out, I’m having two or three weeks here and there and that makes such a difference because you can still train consistently. I’ve got good people around me who stop me making stupid decisions.”
Muir excused herself action yesterday other than a good training run in, but then she has nothing to prove over 1500m. “I have that change of pace,” she said. “It’s similar to the worlds so I wanted to test it out for that. I had to apologise to Eilish on Saturday because she’s got such a long stride and I had to get round it. But it’s good practice for running around people at different paces.
“Myself and Eilish raced the Scottish Unis back in 2012,” Muir added. “She was first and I was second but I got the world juniors time so I was really pleased. I’ve been racing her a long time and it was good to have two Scots at the front and a Dundee Hawks 1-2. Doubling up is a big ask. It’s not a Europeans, it’s a Worlds. It’s going to be very tough. It’s three rounds which will be tougher and faster. But I think I’m fit enough. If all goes well, we’ll double up but we have to make the ask.”
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 here