Heat struggle puzzles McColgan

EILISH McCOLGAN was left reeling at the end of the women’s 5,000 metres — and admitted she doubted whether she’d make it to the finish in hot and humid conditions at the Carrara Stadium.

McColgan, who had looked stronger in finishing sixth during the 1,500m final, her warmup for the main event, was rocking and swaying as she left the track after ending up in the same position — but miles off the leaders — yesterday.

And the Scot, pipped for fifth in a sprint for the line with Australia’s Celia Sullohern, revealed: ‘With eight laps to go, I felt pretty flat and tired.

‘With four laps to go, I seriously thought: “I don’t know if I’m going to make it…”.

‘Then I came back a bit towards the end, managed to plough through. But obviously I tried too hard to catch that girl on the line.

‘I still feel a bit strange. I train in heat, so I’m used to it. So I don’t know. I don’t usually feel like this after a race.

‘When I won my medal at the European Indoors, it happened there. I felt very different afterwards. But that’s unusual for me.

‘It’s annoying and frustrating because I feel it can’t have gone better, physically, in training.

‘But again I’ve just fallen flat when it comes to getting a medal.

‘I can’t be too disheartened. My 1,500m was my third-fastest time and I don’t run that event very often.

‘But today was hard and frustrating. I should be able to perform better.

‘Possibly running the 1,500m impacted on it. But I needed some races to get into the 5,000m.’

McColgan was attended to by one of the Team Scotland doctors as she left the track, revealing: ‘He suggested it may be the heat. But I train in heat all the time. This isn’t unusual for me. It’s happened once — two or three years ago.

‘Maybe it’s tiredness because I’ve struggled to sleep in the village.’

The women’s 4x400m relay team, meanwhile, were never in the running for a medal in yesterday’s final, finishing in sixth despite breaking the Scottish record.