No sign of slowdown for Doyle as relay quartet take silver

Ten major championship medals and counting for Eilidh Doyle, but the fire remains undimmed.

Recently turned 30, the Scot retains a youthful enthusiasm and she was an experienced influence as an untried British 4x400m quartet took silver in Belgrade.

Two days after exiting the individual 400m in the semifinals, it was sweet redemption.

“It was nice to come back out and have a chance to run again,” she acknowledged.

In the lead when Doyle completed the opening leg, the subsequent trio of Phillipa Lowe, Mary Iheke and Laviai Nielsen could not hold off Poland but the team’s stalwart knows this was an appropriate return.

She said: “Steve Maguire [head of relay programme] said at the team meeting, ‘you’re the most experienced, you’re in charge, if there’s any issues, then you sort it.’ I think experience is a nice way of saying I’m the oldest but I’ve had so much help over the years from first Lee Mcconnell then Christine Ohuruogu, so I wanted to reassure them it wasn’t that scary. ”

Doyle will expect to retain

0 Eilidh Doyle: Experienced. her place for the spring’s world relays in the Bahamas and then for the world championships in London in August. But her hurdles specialism will not be neglected. “The whole aim for my indoor season was to be more aggressive and take that into the hurdles. My coach said it’s the most aggressive he’s seen me and although I didn’t get the 400m medal, I’m taking a lot of positives now into the outdoor season.”

Asha Philip admitted the competition in British female sprinting has been a spur after her win in the 60 metres in a UK record of 7.06m. “I used to go to Diamond League and there would be me and Andy Turner there, or me and Tiffany Porter,” Philip said. “But now you go on the circuit and there are so many different Brits. I love it.”