Wightman keen to enter history books in Oslo
JAKE WIGHTMAN wants to write himself into the middledistance history books tonight in Oslo and then target being the Best of British.
The European medallist, 27, joins fellow Scot Neil Gourley and Olympic 1500 metres champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the fabled Dream Mile at the Bislett Games. It offers Wightman the chance to hunt his second Diamond League victory in a row following his impressive outing in Rabat last week.
But the absence of Josh Kerr from the field is an opportunity missed, he claims, for the tartan trio to knock off Steve Cram’s time of 3:46.32 that remains the UK best, 37 years on.
“It’d be nice if we could all get in one race and attack a time together,” he said. “I want to try and see if I can run that record. And I’m sure if I did manage to do it, Josh would probably come out and try and get it back. That’s where we are now. We need to be breaking both indoor and outdoor British records to be able to go and run against Jakob and Timothy Cheruiyot now.
“I need to be competitive. I need to be going for the win in races like that to be able to put myself in contention hopefully for a good run at the world championships.”
Laura Muir believes she is hitting her best form ahead of running the 800m. In a re-run of last summer’s Olympic trials, she will duel this evening with fellow Britons Keely Hodgkinson and Jemma Reekie.
It is a tasty appetiser for the world trials, with Muir buoyed by producing the second-quickest time of her career of 1:57.23 in a mixed race at Tuesday’s BMC Grand Prix in Manchester.
“I’m so happy to get a result which shows the sort of shape I am in,” said Muir, a previous winner at Bislett in 2015.
Dundee Hawkhill Harriers club-mate Eilish McColgan takes on Ethiopia’s world record holder Letesenbet Gidey over 5,000m with a perfect opportunity to attack her own British mark of 14:28.55, set in Oslo 12 months ago.
Fifer Beth Dobbin has her own trials warm-up in the 200m and could also feature in a run out for GB&NI’s 4x400 relay squad.