LEARMONTH NO FALL GUY
Scot avoids collision to take 800m gold
BUT for a stroke of luck, Guy Learmonth’s weekend could have ended very differently. The 27-yearold is now sitting pretty having won his third British Indoor 800m title at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow but he was a whisker away from a much less satisfying result.
The 800m final was the most anticipated race of the day, and it was not a let down. 1500m world finalist Josh Kerr took the race by the scruff of the neck from the gun, surging to the front in an impressive pace.
Learmonth was looking in control in fourth place, where he remained until the bell. With Kerr still the frontrunner, Learmonth made his move, just before a collision in front of him which saw Englishman Alex Botterill tripped by Andrew Osagie and hit the deck, and nearly took the Scot out in the process.
But the Lasswade man managed to side-step the trouble and regain his momentum, before powering through the last 100m to take the title ahead of Osagie, with Kerr fading to fourth in the final few metres.
It was, admitted Learmonth, a scary moment, and was too close for comfort to a repeat of the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow last year, where he fell on exactly the same bend as the incident yesterday.
“Josh [Kerr] took it out at a very good pace. It usually eradicates any mayhem but in the final lap everyone gets a bit excited,” he said.
“I was fourth most of the way round and that played in my favour. I just had to be patient. The tactics were to sit back and try to stroke.
“In the heat I was making a move every 100 or 150 metres and I had nothing in the last 50 so I had to make sure I was finishing strong in the final.
“I really thought I was going to go down. I was in lane three running the top bend and I don’t know how I didn’t go down.
“He [Osagie] must have clipped someone on the inside. I think he was already on the way down when he hit me.
“Every race indoors all that’s been going through my head is not to fall over.
“I managed to get through the whole indoor campaign and almost went down in Glasgow again. Thankfully I managed to stay on my feet.”
This result may have been Learmonth’s third British Indoor title but it is, he says, his most pleasing, particularly as he looks towards the Olympic trials and Tokyo 2020.
“Hopefully this is a sign of things to come,” he said.
“I want to go even quicker this year. I’ve always set my goals high and I know I can do that. As long as I stay in one piece, I firmly believe I can compete with the world’s best every week.
“I’m training well, things are heading in the right direction and this is a nice stepping-stone to outdoors. But I have to get the job done at the Olympic trials.
“Nine times out of 10 I perform at the trials whereas other guys crack and crumble but I’ve got to focus on that. I’m just taking one race at a time but the Olympics is in the back of my mind because of course I want to be on that plane to Tokyo and I want to be in the final. The 800m is a tough event so I’ve got to be in one piece, keep training hard and keep my head down. It’s Manchester 2020 in my head, not Tokyo 2020 yet.
“I feel I can go faster than I ever have. I want to run one minute 43 seconds – I’ve been wanting to do that for a few years. It might be a bit ambitious but if I get the right race and get stuck in and go for it, I don’t see why not. I don’t set a limit on what I can run – there’s certain goals and targets along the way and once I hit them, I’ll move onto the next one. So 1:43 is the target this year.”
Elsewhere, David Smith took silver in the high jump with a leap of 2.24m behind Englishman Tom Gale, who jumped 2.27m. However, Smith was not too disappointed as he looks towards qualifying for what would be his first Olympic appearance in Tokyo.
“High jump is always bittersweet, 2.27m would have been a PB for me but I can’t be angry with a 2.24m effort,” he said.
“Coming out with no injuries is the main thing. Silver is a good start to the Olympic year so hopefully it’s all go towards Tokyo. It’s every athlete’s dream to be there so let’s see if I can make it happen.”
Nikki Manson won bronze in the high jump with 1.84m and Andrew Murphy won bronze in the pole vault with a clearance of 5m, a result that is even more impressive bearing in mind the 25-yearold is a decathlete who finished seventh in the 60m hurdles on Saturday.
“It’s been an ideal end to a great season, and the bronze medal means a lot,” he said.
“I really want to make the European Championships for the decathlon. I’ll switch my focus to that in early May and that’s the next big goal.”
Jenny Selman also nabbed a silver medal in the 1500m to add to the Scottish tally for the night, coming in behind England’s Holly Archer.