Eilish nails the mother of all races
McColgan heroic in matching mum Liz
EILISH McColgan hugged her mum in Birmingham last night and the wattage of their smiles was enough to light up the moon.
Twice during her marvellous career, the former Liz Lynch tore up the track to secure 10,000 metres gold at a Commonwealth Games.
Her eldest daughter has had much to live up to. Too much, perhaps. But on a wonderful Wednesday that their clan will never forget, history repeated itself with a brilliant victory for Eilish that brought Alexander Stadium to its feet.
The 31-year-old has endured so much this year. First Covid, then an illness and injury. She was well off the pace at last month’s World Championships in Oregon.
Fast forward a fortnight, and the spring in her step was back, bullishly battling Kenya’s Irine Cheptai on the closing lap before pulling away for victory in a Games record time of 30:48.60.
‘Without the crowd, I wouldn’t have finished that,’ she declared after matching her mother’s victories at Edinburgh in 1986 and Auckland four years later.
‘I wanted it so badly. I know the (Kenyan) girls are super strong. I knew if I could stay with them I had a chance of a medal. But this is an absolute dream.
‘It’s so special to have this event in the UK. This is my fourth Commonwealth Games and my fourth event. I have done the 1500m, the 5km, the steeplechase. I have finally found the event — and to win tonight is incredible.
‘I couldn’t hear myself think or breathe, but, in that last 100m, the crowd carried me. This is the most incredible moment of my career.’
Mum Liz, flying in from her base in Qatar, was trackside and bursting with pride. There were tears of joy in her eyes as her offspring approached. They were shared by a proud and delighted nation as the pair embraced.
This was a performance Liz would have been happy to call her own, Eilish’s tenacity helping to whittle the field down to two with four laps left before a decisive surge past the former world crosscountry champion Cheptai.
‘To witness your daughter win in the same event is incredible,’ said Liz, who coaches her daughter in lockstep with McColgan’s partner, Michael Rimmer. ‘She just ran the race I knew she was capable of running.
‘It has been a long time coming and she put it together tonight, and I’m just really, really pleased because I know the hard work that she does. And her support team, Michael. Her dad’s here tonight. Her uncles, people are here that don’t normally get to watch her running and it’s just fantastic. It’s come together and she’s won.’
The battle on the track had been something to behold as McColgan found herself locked together with Cheptai.
The Kenyan, who finished sixth, ahead of the Scot at last summer’s Tokyo Olympics, opened up a metre’s lead with 250m to go.
But McColgan reeled her in, found the strength to go past her and, after a brief look over her shoulder for the response that never came, she landed the biggest win of her career.
The ovation was probably the loudest heard at an athletics meeting in Britain since Super Sunday ten years ago.
Another Kenyan, Sheila Kiprotich, had looked like she was going to trouble McColgan but started to limp in the closing laps and ultimately fended off injury to take bronze, with McColgan’s childhood friend Sarah Inglis finishing ninth.
‘It has just been an up and down year with Covid, another illness, a couple of niggles at the wrong time,’ said champion McColgan, who must now reset for the 5,000m in Birmingham — and, beyond that, her October marathon debut in London.
‘I knew that the fitness was in me. I couldn’t have asked for more.
‘My family were here, the crowd on that last 100... well, it was vibrating through my own body. Without the crowd, I wouldn’t have finished that. I wanted it so badly.’