NO PLACE LIKE HOME

0 Doyle with Commonwealth Games silver medal she won in 2014. crowds for all of the ten days at London’s Olympic Stadium. She achieved her goal of reaching the 400m hurdles final in what is one of the hottest events in athletics at the moment, finishing last, but finished on a high with another relay medal for her collection with a silver in the women’s 4x400m. Aberdeen’s Zoey Clark made it a half-scottish quartet.

Former European champion and two-time individual Commonwealth Games silver-medallist, Child now has four major relay medals to her name, with her 2013 world championship bronze upgraded to silver due to Russian cheating and bronzes at the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2015 world championship.

Now eight weeks into her winter training programme, Doyle looks back on the summer with pride.

“I had a couple of races after London and then had three weeks off so I was catching up on the iplayer,” she said. “You never get a chance at the time and it was good. And to watch other people as well, not just my own races.”

The prospect of a major individual global outdoor medal may be fading but Doyle remains as motivated as ever. Next year’s Commonwealth Games in Australia’s Gold Coast, Europeans in Berlin and, of course, further relay chances, still drive her on.

“It just carries on as usual, really,” she said. “Before you know it you’re back into your winter training and your routine that you’ve built up over the years.

“The focus is now on the indoor season. Training is coming together well and it’s about using the indoors to see where I am. Testing my speed over the flat 400. Having this event in Glasgow is ideal for me ahead of the

“I don’t think people appreciate how much of an advantage it gives you to get that support from a home crowd. It’s just brilliant”

EILIDH DOYLE