Thomas set for Belgrade to fulfil dream
GOOD enough to play football at county level while growing up as a Caledonian exile in Reading, Adam Thomas grew disillusioned and was content to walk away. But the sporting flame was never fully extinguished and on the athletics track, the spark was re-lit.
And after breaking the Scottish indoor record in the men’s 60 metres to claim the British title in Birmingham yesterday, he has scored the goal of international selection with a place in the UK’s team for next month’s world indoor championships in Belgrade.
At 26, he is a late bloomer, but he is rapidly making up for lost time. On an upward trajectory in recent weeks, he usurped the experienced Andy Robertson with a time of 6.56 seconds to obliterate Nick Smith’s 2010 mark.
“I really didn’t think I had won at the end,” he admitted. “It was really all on that last stride. I think I just out-dipped Andy on the line. To know I am going to Belgrade is beyond my wildest dreams. I cannot wait to be in the British team – my first time – and receive the kit and British vest, I will be so proud.”
More places on the plane to Serbia will be determined today with Jemma Reekie, Neil Gourley and Guy Learmonth among those safely progressing into finals.
Other A-Listers are giving the world indoors a swerve, given the hectic summer schedule ahead. But Thomas said: “After missing out on the Gold Coast, I have been looking forward to the Commonwealths here in Birmingham and the opportunity to represent Scotland.”
Erin Wallace will hope for formal selection for Belgrade but must sweat on her spot. With the required qualifying standard already secured, a win in the women’s 1500m would have booked the 21-year-old’s ticket but she was out-paced on the last lap to finish runner-up to Adelle Tracey.
Alisha Rees lowered her Scottish women’s indoor 60m record to 7.31 secs to come second to Cheyanne Evans Gray but was 0.01 shy of the world indoor qualifying time.
Heather Paton equalled her own Scottish 60m hurdles best of 8.28 secs in coming fourth in a final won by Megan Marrs.
In Falkirk, Mhairi Maclennan snared her third women’s Scottish cross-country title ahead of Scout Atkin and Morag Millar, with European champion Megan Keith earning the Under-20 crown.
Jamie Crowe retained his men’s title with Ross Gollan and Andy Douglas behind.
Meanwhile, Josh Kerr is hoping to end his indoor season on a high in Boston tonight by claiming not just one British record, but two. The Olympic bronze medallist, 24, has headed to the Last Chance Meet with Peter Elliot’s mile and 1500 metres bests in his sights in a twin swoop.
The Yorkshireman’s 1500m mark of 3:34.48 and mile record of 3:52.02 have stood for 32 years with Kerr failing in his previous bid four weeks ago in New York despite the consolation of capturing the Scottish mile best.
But with fellow Scots Gourley and Jake Wightman also falling short in their assaults last Saturday, Kerr reckons it is time he finally ended Elliot’s reign.
“A lot of people are chatting about British records,” he said. “I want to get in on the fun. I enjoy going after a record so I thought I’d double down and try and run the 1500m and mile indoor British records in one race. It’s going to be fast and it’s going to be hard And it’s definitely not a guarantee.
“No-one has really tried to do both before. So I’m not sure how to approach it yet. There’s definitely going to be a surge with 200 to go to get that split. But it’s fun. It excites me. It gets my out the door every morning and thinking this could be a really cool thing to do.
“They tried to break the British record last weekend in Birmingham but it’s hard to do in a race like that. But I’ll have a pacer and this will be based on going for the record rather than a race.”