Glasgow Commonwealths set Gourley on track to stardom
NEIL Gourley has revealed how watching Team Scotland compete at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow fired his own track ambitions.
The Glaswegian, who was 19 in 2014, lived only 10 minutes away from Hampden Park and took in sessions as a supporter as four Scots landed track and field medals.
Gourley wasn’t quite fast enough to trouble the selectors at that time but, after an athletics scholarship in America, his development blossomed in a breakthrough year in 2018 when he won World Cup bronze in the 1500m in London.
He then made the World Champs final in Doha in his first major outdoor championships as a GB international – with teammates Jake Wightman and Josh Kerr ensuring there were more Scots in that final than Kenyans.
“It is a 10-minute walk from my house to Hampden so I was at the Commonwealth Games in 2014 to attend a few sessions,” recalled Gourley in a special interview with Scottish Athletics.
“I was not quite at the level at that stage but it was starting to feel tangible.
I could see people I knew quite well, or certainly from the same environment and background as me, competing there for Scotland and it spurred me on, yes.
“Athletics in Scotland is blessed at the moment with some great athletes and I think so many of us were affected and motivated by the Commonwealths in 2014. One or two like Laura Muir, Jake Wightman and Callum Hawkins were in the team at a pretty young age but others like Andy Butchart, Jemma Reekie, Josh Kerr and myself were too young or not yet ready.
“And, with Hampden 10 minutes away from my house, I was definitely one of them who by that stage started to think if others can make that stage, then so can I.”
Gourley won the British Indoors in the winter of 2018 to confirm his place for the European Indoors at Glasgow 2019 – in his own backyard of the Emirates Arena. But Neil fell ill between cruising through the heats and had to scratch from the final – a year after missing out on the European Championships in Berlin.
“The Glasgow 2019 disappointment was different – and a lot harder to take,” he said. “It was because it was in Glasgow and I don’t know it that opportunity will ever be there again to race in championships like that in front of family and friends.
“It lingered for a couple of weeks, certainly, and motivation was difficult. It was personal, in a sense, and I’d wanted so badly to do well for people who had supported me and are close to me. But eventually I had to start looking ahead.
“I went to the British trials for Doha in August 2019 and won it. It wasn’t a surprise to me, despite a stacked field, because we believed I could do it – but it was a surprised when I crossed the line.
“I looked up and saw my mum, dad and brother in the stand celebrating wildly. There and then that made up for Glasgow 2019 in many ways.”
Athletics in Scotland is blessed at the moment