Individual medal success ‘special’ to Doyle as she prepares for Gold Coast

Kinross athlete Eilidh Doyle secured her first ever individual global medal at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham on Saturday.

The Pitreavie AC star came off the 400m first lap stagger in second place behind leader Courtney Okolo, only losing out in the final 30m to Shakima Wimbley of the USA.

Doyle clocked a season’s best 51.60 seconds as she held off the challenge of Poland’s Justyna Swiety-ersetic for a well-deserved individual world medal.

Doyle said: “I’ve always won medals in the relays but to win one on my own in an individual 400m is very special and means a lot.

“It’s not my preferred event so to do this is incredible.

“This adds another accolade to my collection which is just amazing.

“It was a good race for me; I went out hard which was the plan and I’m so pleased with the end result.

“I love the indoors – I think this has prepared me so well for the Commonwealth Games as well. I can go into that with so much confidence.

“I’m testing my flat speed and it is clearly there so I’ll look forward to getting back to the hurdles.”

The 31-year old has won 400m hurdles silver twice at the Commonwealth Games and will now be looking to graduate to gold in Australia next month.

Inverness athlete Zoey Clark, who had also fought strongly in the previous rounds, was in contention at the break before slipping back to sixth.

There was a rollercoaster of emotion in the men’s 800m final as Elliot Giles ran out of medal contention in the final few strides of the race.

It was hugely disappointing for Giles who had battled hard for position throughout, only to see bronze slip from his grasp as Poland’s Adam Kszczot took gold.

Briefly elevated to bronze following an initial disqualification and later overturned, Giles said: It’s all been quite surreal. I haven’t seen the race back so I can’t really judge it fairly.

“We put so much effort into the sport and then our race is over in under two minutes. The decision that is made has to be the right one so I accept it.”

US athlete Christian Coleman set a championship record as he claimed gold over 60m. GB’S CJ Ujah was disqualified for a false start in the semi-finals.

Kendra Harrison of the USA won the women’s hurdles in a championship record of 7.70 seconds, while the men’s heptathlon was won by world champion and training partner to Katarina Johnson-thompson, Kevin Mayer of France.