GUYS & LOWS
Learmonth: Euros captain’s role is the perfect pick-me-up after year from hell
GUY LEARMONTH grinned from ear to ear when team-mates voted him British captain for this weekend’s European Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
A shock for the Borders ace. But a cracking surprise.
And just the tonic he needed after 18 months from hell that left him down in the dumps, going around in circles and struggling to find something to smile about.
Injuries. Illnesses. Trials and tribulations. All coming so thick and fast he thought they’d never stop.
Learmonth said: “I’ve had members of my family dying. Friends struggling. Friends of the family fighting cancer. It’s really torn my whole family apart.
“The death of my grandparents has caused so much pain.
“That has been difficult because we’ve always been like one of those crazy Italian families and now everyone has split up because they’re grieving in their own way.
“That has been hard. I have always been the one person who looked after everyone and kept everyone laughing. But I’ve been down.”
Learmonth admits he has found it difficult to open up, although he knows that bottling up emotions can be detrimental to mental well-being.
The 26-year-old, who kicks off his 800 metres bid at the Emirates Arena tonight, said: “Everyone deals with their struggles in different ways and I’ve probably refused to speak to people which is a stupid mentality.
“I need to be better at opening up and that has made the past year hard. Athletics has always been my escape so when that’s not going to plan, you think, ‘What do I do now?’”
The easy route to success hasn’t passed through Berwick where the popular Scot now bases himself after returning from UK Athletics HQ in Loughborough. He hated it there. The system was a cage. He set himself free.
That has meant building his own training set-up from scratch with a makeshift track on the banks of the Tweed and a gym in his dad’s garage.
The results last year came good. Only Tom McKean and Jake Wightman are ahead of him in the all-time Scottish 800m rankings. Just McKean and Brian Whittle have gone faster indoors.
But with tough times off the track, it has been hard going on it with hip and ankle problems to overcome – then a mid-race tumble two weeks ago at the Grand Prix in Birmingham that led to a broken finger and a rib injury.
Learmonth said: “I was thinking, ‘When is this going to end?’
“I’ve done all my rehab. My physio is
a specialist and he has held me together. I know you make your own luck but I need things to go my way.
“What happened in Birmingham was unavoidable. There’s nothing I could have done. I felt amazing all that week.
“Which is why I’m not afraid to go after fast times or say I can win medals. I can do it. But when something like that happens, you do wonder.
“I want McKean’s record of 1:46.22 that’s stood since 1990. It feels like fate for me to follow in his footsteps.”
Learmonth is one of nine Scots heading into battle, led by Laura Muir, who’s hoping to defend her 3000m title tonight before matching that in the 1500m on Sunday.
He is one of only two members of the Tartan contingent who doesn’t have an international championship medal.
Time to push through the pain, stay out of trouble, and go for glory.
He said: ”When I strike, it’s got to be a deadly strike at the right time and when no one can come back at me. I have to run so smart.”