THIS was a good day for two old pals from the Borders. While Guy Learmonth was happy to have booked his place in this afternoon’s 800m final at the SPAR British Athletics Indoor Championships at the Emirates in Glasgow, he seemed just as pleased to hear that his long-time friend Stuart Hogg had led Scotland to rugby victory in Rome after a difficult start to his Six Nations campaign.
Learmonth, a former rugby player in his youth, led for the majority of the third and final heat only to ease up in the closing stages to allow Piers Copeland to pip him on the line.
That meant a brief anxious wait until it was confirmed that his time of 1.48.13 was still good enough for the man from Berwick-upon-Tweed.
“I switched off in the last 20 metres and he came past me on the inside,” said Learmonth. “It’s fine, a wee bit annoying but all good. It’s my fault and it’ll be better [in the final].
“I’m running well so it’s probably a kick up the backside I needed to make sure I do stay switched on and composed. I’d rather do it [in the heat than the final].”
His good mood was heightened with word of the white smoke emerging from Rome to signal a rare Scottish win.
“I’m glad we can beat Italy as we’ve been through the ringer these past few months,” added Learmonth. “Against Ireland and England there was a bit of a fumble over his line so it’s great Hoggy’s got the ball in his hands and scored this time!”
In this afternoon’s final, Learmonth will line up against Josh Kerr, a repeat of last week’s meeting at the Muller Grand Prix at the same venue where Learmonth claimed third, with Kerr just behind him.
“Josh could have picked the 1500 metres and won that easily I think,” added Learmonth. “Obviously I want to finish first, Josh can finish second. As long as I’m on top of the podium, that’s all that matters.”
Kerr, the Seattle-based athlete, also finished second in his heat and was looking forward to the final.
“It was good,” said the 1500m world finalist of his run. “In the last 200m I knew there weren’t a lot of people who could run 1:47 here so I eased off a bit to recover a bit for the final.
“I’m feeling confident ahead of the final. It takes a bit of time to get into these 800m races for me and getting around those bends. But it’s a lot of fun and something different.
“It’s great competing in Glasgow again. I looked into it and before last weekend I hadn’t ran here for five years. So it’s nice being back in Scotland and having family watching me.”
There will be two Scottish women in the 800m final as well, with Mhairi Hendry and Philippa Millage both making it through qualifying.
It caps an incredible week for Millage who paced Jemma Reekie to victory in France on Wednesday night.
This is the first time the British indoor championships have been held in Glasgow, although a sheen has been taken off the event with no world championship places up for grabs with next month’s event postponed due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
There was success in the men’s 60m final for Andrew Robertson– not that one – in a time of 6.66 seconds, with Scot Adam Thomas fourth.
David King won gold in the men’s 60m hurdles with a time of 7.78 seconds, with Edinburgh’s Scott Connal finishing sixth and Andrew Murphy a place back with a personal best.
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