Kinghorn goes the distance To clinch gutsy bronze
Sprinter gets hands on silverware despite move into new territory
SAMMI KINGHORN added a second medal to Team Scotland’s tally on the track, winning a gutsy bronze medal in the T53/ T54 1500m as she finally got her hands on some much longed-for Commonwealth Games silverware.
As a former world champion and Paralympic medallist, Kinghorn is well-known as a world-class sprinter but with the wheelchair sprints absent from Birmingham 2022’s programme, the 26-year-old was forced to move up to the longer distance at these Commonwealth Games.
Despite the 1500m being far further than Kinghorn is typically comfortable with, the Borders native was desperate to get onto the Commonwealth Games podium having finished in fifth place in 2014 as a teenager and fourth place in 2018 at the same distance.
The first two laps of the final were undertaken at a relatively pedestrian speed but with two laps to go, the pre-race favourite of Maddie de Rozario from Australia picked up the pace and broke the field up.
She could not drop Kinghorn though, who remained steadfastly on her shoulder.
At the bell, the Scot was in second place and maintained that position until the final few metres when she was caught by de Rozario’s compatriot, Angela Ballard with Kinghorn crossing the line in 3 minutes 53.38 seconds, just eight hundredths behind Ballard.
Despite being pipped on the line, Kinghorn was delighted to grab a spot on the podium and complete her set of Commonwealth, European, world and Paralympic medals, particularly when she was forced to dig so deep to do so.
“It was such a tough race, there was no one drafting me at any point so I was thinking recover, try and recover!’”.
“I was looking down at my speed thinking I don’t know how long I can maintain this!,” said Kinghorn, who was paralysed as a 14-year-old as a result of an accident at her family farm.
“My coach said to me beforehand, throw everything at that last lap and give it your all and that’s what I did.
“Ahead of the race, with my form, I hoped there would be a medal but with the 1500m, it’s about who’s recovering in the pack, who’s ready to strike and who wants it – that’s genuinely what it’s about.
“I came fifth in Glasgow in 2014, fourth in Gold Coast in 2018 and third now so I’m improving year on year and one day, I will be in the middle of that podium.”
Fellow Scot, Melanie Woods was fourth on her Commonwealth Games debut in 3 minutes 56.52 seconds.
The men’s 1500m heats saw the Scottish trio of Jake Wightman, Josh Kerr and Neil Gourley all progress to the final as expected.
This was Wightman’s first competitive outing as world
champion having won the title a fortnight ago but he showed no signs of fatigue following his heroics in Eugene, winning his heat in an extremely comfortable 3 minute 48.34 seconds, almost 20 seconds slower than his World Championship-winning time.
Gourley finished fourth in that same heat to also gain an automatic qualifying spot.
Kerr, who won Olympic bronze last summer but finished outside of the medals at last month’s World Championships in fifth place, is also through to the final after finishing fourth in his heat in 3 minutes 37.84 seconds.
He has his sights set on a place on the podium at Birmingham
2022 and revealed the whole of Team Scotland’s athletics squad, himself included, has been inspired by Eilish McColgan’s glorious gold medal in the 10,000m on Wednesday evening.
“The way that she won and who she is, she inspires everyone in Team Scotland so much,” the 24-year-old from Edinburgh said.
“She’s been around for a long time and has just been grinding so that’s what makes us all think let’s push on this year and try to have the best Commonwealth Games we’ve ever had.
“We were sitting at dinner watching her final and that last 200m was the stuff of dreams for her and she’ll look back on that with so much pride, and so do we all.
“Having Team Scotland athletes represent us like that is what we’re here to do.”
The Scots were not the only world-class runners to make it through to Saturday’s 1500m final.
Also on the starting line at the weekend will be the Kenyan pair of Olympic silver medallist, Timothy Cheruiyot and Abel Kipsang, who was fourth at Tokyo 2020, as well as Welshman and Olympic finalist, Jake Heyward and Englishman Elliot Giles.
Also in good form on day three of the athletics programme was Beth Dobbin, with the sprinter easing into today’s 200m semi-finals with second place in her heat in 23.10 seconds, three tenths behind Olympic champion, Elaine Thompson-Herah.
In the discus final, Scottish record holder Nick Percy finished in fifth place.