Crowe stays cool over Euro call-up

Jamie Crowe has done all he can to keep his first international athletics call-up on the down-low. He is proud as punch to be pulling on his maiden GB&NI vest at tomorrow’s European cross-country championships in Dublin.

But to the pupils of Craigie High in Dundee, the PE teacher remains the man of mystery who forces them to sweat in the school day: rain, hail or shine.

“I try and keep my running quiet,” the 26-yearold revealed.

“They don’t really ask. The school are pretty chuffed so they might have put something on the bulletin that goes around all the morning classes. But I’ll still be useless at football to the kids.

“I did the London Marathon, I didn’t run that well. But the kids who knew were dead supportive after that.

“They’re good when they do learn. It makes you sound like a real person, rather than just the teacher.”

He may bring a medal back on Monday morning, given the UK’s dominance at Euro Cross, with enough depth that all of the seven teams entered will expect to return with a souvenir of sorts.

Crowe’s career has been a slow build towards this opportunity: time in the United States at college, finding his feet on the road circuit upon his return, lowering his times, and then waiting for the chips to fall his way.

The muddy fields of Sport Ireland’s campus beckon with a men’s entry list headlined by the Olympic 1500 metres champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen.

This has come at the right time, the Scot underlines.

“I’ve been knocking on the door for a few years, and it can help me with getting into races. It helps with motivation as well.

“It’s difficult, working full-time. You’re doing the same races each year. And you’re missing out by few places each year. So the getting up at 6am or 5.30am gets a wee bit more difficult.

“After the trials for this, the 6am alarm that Monday was way easier than it’s been for a few years.”

He has had positive influences to stir his belief.

Andy Butchart, his clubmate at Central AC, will be at his side at the start.

“It fires my dad up more than me to be honest,” Crowe insists.

“I got one on him in 2019 in Stirling. It definitely fires me up, and fires him up. But I’m getting closer to him.”

At the outset, Liz McColgan was his coach at Dundee Hawkhill Harriers, a cold bath in the realities of what was required to excel and progress.

“I joined her group a couple of years after moving there,” he said.

“Her group was seen as the classic group, the one you want to get to. So you trained with the other Hawks groups until she asked you to join hers and it’s such a big thing.

“She was great. She had amazing facilities for someone my age. She had a gym. And training was hard but was relevant to what I was doing. I was training with people getting GB vests, including Eilish, so you can get an idea what it takes.”

Dublin, he trusts, will propel him up again to the next level.

Butchart, now a two-time Olympic finalist, was no prodigy but followed a similar path, including a prior Euro Cross gold.

“Obviously, he’s going to be a very strong anchor,” Crowe added.

“In America, I did like how cross countries were team-based. So I want to be in the top four to count towards the points.”

COMPETITORS: Andy Butchart, closely pursued by club-mate Jamie Crowe.