Doyle ‘happy’ with silver at Glasgow Grand Prix

Pitreavie athlete Eilidh Doyle had to settle for silver at the Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix yesterday after a spirited race from world 400m champion Phyllis Francis.

Doyle, who won gold in the discipline at the British Indoor Championships last week, kicked in after 150m to take the lead in front of a home crowd.

But she ran out of gas on the final straight as American Francis showed her class to finish in 52.00 seconds.

Doyle held on to claim second place from Jamaica’s Stephenie Ann McPherson.

Doyle, who clocked 52.38 secs, said: “I was happy with that. I didn’t know how much I had in me after a hard weekend last week, but my attitude was to try and win it from the break or just settle in.

“It was good to get that race in there because it was really competitive and that’s what we’ll have at the worlds.”

Fellow Scot Lynsey Sharp clocked 2:02.39 in the women’s 800m to finish second behind Latvia’s Liga Velvere.

Dina Asher-Smith produced a brilliant time to cruise into the final of the women’s 60m sprint before Jake Wightman claimed third place in the men’s 800m.

Wightman will represent Scotland at the Commonwealth Games and started slowly but, encouraged by the crowd, surged into contention in the second half of the race.

He was eventually beaten by Adam Kszczot and Marcin Lewandowski but a personal best of 1:47.69 secured third for Wightman.

American Fred Kerley ran a stadium record 45.86 in the men’s 400m while Falkirk Victoria’s Grant Plenderleith was fifth in 47.28.

Andrew Pozzi backed up an impressive showing in Birmingham last week, when he won the British title, by finishing third in the 60m hurdles.

Dina Asher-Smith competed in the final of the women’s 60m but was pipped to the line by Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast by 0.02s.

Adam Gemili disappointed in the men’s final but Ojie Edoburun and CJ Ujah, who finished fourth and fifth respectively, impressed.

In the field long jumper Greig Rutherford could only finish fourth with 7.89m as winner Changzhou Huang of China won with 8.13m.