Doyle left ‘gutted’ as she misses out on 400m final
EILIDH DOYLE last night admitted a few tears were likely to be shed after she crashed out in the semifinals of the 400metres at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade. The 30-year-old Scot, tipped to possibly even better her silver of 2013, was in the lead until the closing strides before Czech star Zuzana Hejnova and Poland’s Malgorzata Holub came hurtling by. ‘You never expect anything but you know you have a chance,’ admitted Doyle, who will now put everything into tomorrow’s 4x400m relay final. ‘I knew I had a chance. I was just as good as anybody else. So to go out and not make the final is gutting.’ Guy Learmonth didn’t even survive the first round of the 800m, with the Borderer slumping from first to fifth on the home straight as reigning champion Adam Kszczot led a charge past. ‘I wanted so much more,’ said Learmonth. ‘I came into these championships ranked fifth and it was all really close, bar Kszczot. So I’m absolutely devastated it’s ended like that. I’ve only got myself to blame.’ Team-mate Laura Muir remained on track to become the first woman for a decade to do the 1,500m and 3,000m double at the European Indoors after two energyconserving runs on the opening day. The Scot negotiated her way through the 3,000m heats in the morning as a fastest loser before returning for the 1,500m in the evening, where she qualified for tonight’s final fifth fastest overall. ‘I got the recovery in and jogged back to the hotel as part of my cooldown to save on time, then ate, had a massage, slept and came back on the coach,’ she said. On this evidence, Muir, who broke Kelly Holmes’ 1,500m British outdoor record last year, has every chance of becoming the first woman since Lidia Chojecka in 2007 to do the double indoors. With four races over three days, she had to suppress her racer’s instinct to stand the best chance of topping the podium twice. ‘You always want to win a race but you just have to be sensible and do what’s necessary to make sure you’re in the best shape when you get to the final,’ she said. ‘I’m running more than everyone else, so they’ll be fresher than I will be, but I know that I’m very, very strong, so I’m just going to bring my A-game tomorrow and hopefully that’s enough.’ Meanwhile, Andy Pozzi left injury woes and his rivals behind him as he grabbed gold yesterday. Pozzi won the 60m hurdles in 7.51sec, finally winning the first senior title that his enormous talent has for so long demanded.