Proud Doyle hopes Scots continue exciting progress in Birmingham
● Olympic relay medallist is feeding off the success of her compatriots and has no imminent plans to hang up her spikes
Eilidh Doyle leads another Scottish raiding party to Birmingham this weekend as the British Championships and World Trials take centre stage.
The Olympic 4x400m relay medallist from 2016 hopes the “invasion” reaches the Alexander Stadium podium in significant numbers to bolster a growing feelgood factor.
Scots have gathered up many medals in the past couple of years at the British Championships and this weekend a top two finish could propel athletes back to London for the 2017 World Championships – if they’ve already achieved the required qualifying standard.
After 15 Scottish athletes were selected for the Olympics in Rio last summer – the biggest contingent for 108 years – Doyle has admitted her own sense of pride has been lifted by recent performances.
“I am so proud of what’s happening in Scottish athletics at the moment,” said Doyle. “I think I may have been described as the ‘Mother Hen’ figure – I don’t mind that, I’m embracing it! I’m just thrilled being part of it and seeing the exciting progress of so many of our athletes.
“I just want to be around to be with them and enjoy the moments with them. So, yes, I am feeding off the success of
0 Eilish Mccolgan: Medal bid. others. Definitely. You check socialmediaandseeoutstanding results and performances and you just think. I want to be part of that; I want to do well, too. It drives you on to try to add more success.”
Doyle represented GB at the Euro Team Championships at the weekend in Lille, France, and claimed full points with a win in the 400m hurdles in a season’s best run of 54.60.
The 30-year-old has brushed aside any talk of imminent retirement, with husband Brian now her coach as Malcolm Arnold takes less of an active role, although he is still advising the Doyles.
“I just don’t want to let this go, that’s the truth,” she told scottishathletics in an interview for PB magazine. “It sounds cheesy, maybe, but I love what I do and I love athletics. I love training and I love competing.
“The older I am getting, the more people ask ‘How can you keep this going?’. But I am stopping and appreciating it a lot more now than a few years ago. When I am at a championships, there is that bit in my head saying ‘Will I be at the next one?’ So I am making sure I savour it. The feeling when you cross the line knowing you’ve worked hard to be there and given everything in the race is a great feeling. I don’t want to give that up any time soon.
“Scots are performing so well and it is so exciting for our sport. I have to say, I am particularly excited about ones I know really well like Laura Muir, Steph Twell and Eilish Mccolgan. I’ve seen all three of those come through some very difficult times.”
With qualifying standards already achieved for London 2017, automatic places can be clinched in Team GB and NI with a gold or silver medal this weekend by the likes of Doyle, Twell, Mccolgan, Lynsey Sharp, Andy Butchart, Chris O’hare, Zoey Clark, Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman.
The full British Athletics team for the World Championships will not be named until following the Anniversary Games in London the weekend after the trials. Laura Muir will miss the 5,000m at the trials but is expected to race in the mile at the Anniversary Games after recovering from a foot injury. Trek-segafredo rider Andre Cardoso has tested positive for banned drug EPO just days before the start of the Tour de France.
Theinternationalcycling Union said the Portuguese returned an adverse analytical finding from an out-of-competition test on 18 June.
The 32-year-old had been selected in the Trek-segafredo’s nine-man squad for the Tour – which starts in Dusseldorf on Saturday – as a support rider for Alberto Contador, but has now been provisionally suspended.
A UCI statement said: “The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announces that Portuguese rider Andre Cardoso was notified of an Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) of Erythropoietin in a sample collected in the scope of an out-of-competition control on 18 June 2017
“Thecontrolwasplanned and carried out by the Cycling Anti-doping Foundation (CADF), the independent body mandated by the UCI, in charge of defining and implementing the anti-doping strategy in cycling.
“The rider has the right to request the analysis of the B sample. In accordance with UCI Anti-doping Rules, the rider has been provisionally suspended until the adjudication.”
Erythropoietin, commonly known as EPO, is a drug that boosts production of red blood cells and, in turn, speeds the delivery of oxygen to muscles.
A Trek-segafredo statement read: “It is with deep disappointment that we have just learned that our rider, Andre Cardoso, has tested positive for a prohibited substance. In accordance with our zero tolerance policy, he has been suspended immediately.
“We hold our riders and staff to the highest ethical standards and will act and communicate accordingly as more details become available.”
Cardoso has completed seven grand tours but this was to be his Tour de France debut. Trek-segafredo later announced that veteran Spaniard Haimar Zubeldia would replace Cardoso’s in the Tour.