EILIDH Doyle is conducting a round of interviews to mark today’s public sale of tickets for the two major indoor athletics events to be hosted at the Emirates Arena in February.

While she won’t be back competing by then she hopes she will be able to enter via the parent and child gate.

“I am due in January so I will maybe be taking my new little one along to give her or his first taste of athletics,” says the 32-year-old from Perthshire. “We will be there to cheer on the British and Scottish athletes competing.”

At pains to emphasise that her first priority will be her child and simply “being a mum”, Doyle still has designs on a 4x400m relay spot for the Tokyo Olympics next summer and it is never wise to write her off.

As different as it has been to be sat at home watching her friends and rivals competing in the IAAF World Championships out in Doha, she admitted getting a little bit dewy-eyed when Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce proved once again that being a new mum isn’t necessarily an impediment to sporting glory with gold in the 100m.

“Everyone has a different journey, but there have always been people out there who have been able to do it [come back],” added Doyle. “You look at Liz McColgan way back with Eilish, or Jana Pittman in my event – who came back to win the event after having a baby.

“You have Jess Ennis and now there is Alyson Felix and Shelly Ann. I was sitting there pregnant thinking about trying to come back and to watch Shelly Ann’s interview after the race was fantastic. It gave me goosebumps and I thought ‘that is exactly what I want to hear right now’.

“Shelly Ann had been a world champion before and been able to come back, likewise Jessica Ennis. While for Alyson Felix [who split with Nike after a wrangle with the kit supplier] it was obviously a terrible time from her.”

Doyle, who was in Glasgow to start the Great Scottish Run in the company of Jack and Victor from the sitcom Still Game, is keen to show that she has plenty of life in her yet.

“It [Tokyo] is an aim, a target,” she said. “I am not putting any pressure on myself to get there.

“I want to get back into training after having the baby and if I didn’t have that target then it might be difficult for me.

“My priority is just to have my baby, to be healthy and all that, to enjoy being a mum.

“It is very kind of up in the air, it will probably be a case of trying to compete when the [outdoor] season starts. It will be a case of seeing how training is going, where I am in my session. I won’t need a race, I will know from my training, my target times, what kind of shape I am in. “

With the Arena Birmingham out of commission, Glasgow will welcome both the Muller Indoor Grand Prix on February 15 and the SPAR British Indoor Championships the following weekend and Doyle thinks it is time Scotland hosted the event.

With capacity crowds cheering on the athletes, they promise to be everything that this week’s IAAF World Championships out in Doha aren’t.

“It is the British Championships, so it should be held all over Britain,” said Doyle. “It is great to get it off the back of the European indoors, that was such a fantastic few days of competition, the crowds there, the atmosphere there.

“It is always difficult to comment when I am not there but I did feel sorry for Dina [Asher Smith] because like a lot of athletes have already said., I was lucky to do a lap of honour at London 2017 and that was almost as special as the medal itself and I really milked it at Glasgow 2014! But I also think Dina will just be so happy she got a medal.”

Doyle’s fellow Kinross High School alumnus Laura Muir got her campaign under way as she coasted through in third place in her 1500m heat, and Doyle doesn’t feel her recent injury might actually be a blessing as she looks to rack up her first major outdoor global medal come Saturday night.

“Whenever Laura gets on the track she gives her all,” said Doyle. “She isn’t putting herself out there if she isn’t ready to go out and compete. It is about tactics, putting that kick in.

“I spoke to her a little bit about things and she will leave everything out there as she always does and hopefully that is enough to bring something home. She wouldn’t be there if she didn’t think she could be contending for those medals. It might actually have been an advantage that she was injured so late. She still had enough time to come back and get ready.”

**Tickets for the Müller Indoor Grand Prix (15 February) and SPAR British Athletics Indoor Championships (22-23 February) at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena go on general sale on Thursday 3 October from 12 noon, priced from £10 for adults and £5 for juniors. Visit the British Athletics website for more details.