Magnificent Megan lands top ten finish in Tokyo and Nicole close to Relay medal – but Laura, Erin miss out

Saturday 13th September 2025

Photo by Sam Mellish for UK Athletics

Megan Keith prepared for the heat and humidity of Tokyo by training for six weeks in a special sauna-like chamber at Edinburgh University.

All that hard work paid off in Japan as the Scot finished tenth in the Women’s 10,000m in tough conditions with temperatures around 30 degrees.

Megan finished top Brit, second European and directly qualifies for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next summer (with top 12 in Tokyo an automatic selection).

Her performance was a major highlight of day one from the Scottish perspective with Nicole Yeargin close to another global medal as she anchored GB and NI to fifth place in the Mixed Relay final.

Unfortunately, Laura Muir departed the Women’s 1500m in the heats with Erin Wallace, also placed eighth with the top six assured of progress, missing out as well albeit on her first appearance at this level for the Giffnock North AC athlete.

Laura was competing for the seventh time for GB and NI at the Worlds but that selection record will be of little consolation to the multiple medallist with her anguish laid bare across the Tokyo coverage.

Photo by Sam Mellish for UK Athletics

Megan was delighted with her tenth place in 31:33.85 in that Women’s 10,00m final.

‘Yeah, that was tough,’ she said.

‘I was realising this morning, I’ve not managed to be healthy and all guns blazing on the start of a championship 10k before, because Paris didn’t go my way and I was kind of injured also going into Euros last year.

‘So it was a new experience to me that I felt like I could fight this time and I was fit and healthy and ready to go. It was just an exciting one to be on the start-line knowing I could handle what was thrown at me.

‘I had kind of contentment on the start line, and I knew all going well I would be on the finish line, whereas the last two champs have been more of a question.

‘But then you can’t take that heat for granted as well. It was still absolutely brutal out there!’

Nicole Yeargin was involved in the opening heats as GB and NI qualified for the Mixed Relay final.

It was a thrilling race – United States took gold – and the British quartet of Lewis Davey, Emily Newnham, Toby Harries and Nicole were always in contention,

Nicole fought hard on the anchor leg with a split of 50.77 but had to settle for fifth in a time of 3:10.84.

Photo by Sam Mellish for British Athletics

Laura suffered a rare first round exit as she finished fifth in the final heat of four in the Women’s 1500m.

The Scot went alongside Kaith Kipyegon for much of the race but looked in some trouble just before the final 100m and was duly passed by a number of athletes.

Laura clocked 4:05.59 but the time was irrelevant in the qualifying process in Tokyo and it was hard to avoid the conclusion that a difficult year and too few races in recent months had an effect.

‘I’ve worked so hard to get back here, and I know I’m in really good shape, so it’s just really frustrating to come here not do what I know I can do,’ said Laura.

‘I was ultimately aiming to make another final and be competitive in that final. So to not make it out the first round is disappointing, because it’s not where I’m at.

‘I think with 500m to go, I didn’t feel great. But, I mean, there’s loads of times in a race you don’t feel great and just push through it. So I didn’t think about it, and I thought, you know, sometimes these things happen.

‘But that last 100m, I think it was apparent it wasn’t okay.’

Erin Wallace made her World Champs debut in heat one of those 1500m races.

Ranked 39^th in the world, it was a tough ask to make the top six to progress and Erin finished just off the lead group in eighth place in 4:06.07.

It’s still been a strong season for the Giffnock North AC athlete as she made the team for Tokyo and moved fourth in the all-time Scottish list for Women’s 1500m.

‘I was always going to be on the cusp of making it to the semi final if I had a really good race, but I could easily run a good race and not,’ said Erin.

‘It’s not like it has been a under performance but I am just slightly underwhelmed with how it has gone. I did learn quite a lot.’