Medal glory for Gourley: Neil lands fine silver at the European Indoors

Friday 3rd March 2023

Photo by James Rhodes

Neil Gourley claimed a superb silver medal in the Men’s 1500m final at the European Indoors in Turkey.

Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the title in 3:33.95 in a Championship Best and held off the Scot over the last lap.

It means a first major medal for Neil in an international context and adds further to the recent Scottish medals over 1500m.

Neil, who finished in 3:34.23 with French athlete Azeddine Habz in third, was on Ingebrigtsen’s shoulder throughout a fast race and applied pressure a couple of times after the bell but couldn’t get ahead of the current Olympic champion.

The Giffnock North AC athlete, 28, set a new British Record for the 1500m Indoors in Birmingham last weekend.

Congratulations to Neil, his coach Stephen Haas, his family and all at Giffnock North AC who helped in his development over a number of years.

‘I was beaten by someone who was better and I have to take that on the chin,’ said Neil, magnanimous and candid as ever.

‘I put myself in the right places in the race. But Jakob was too strong and I didn’t have enough. We’ve built up really well so I look forward to the summer season.

‘It was important to win a medal and this is my first. That’s me started and I’m still putting in building blocks in my career.’

Neil’s British team-mate, George Mills, went down early in the race with 12 men having lined up.

‘I feel for George, I saw him go down just in my peripheral vision to my right,’ said Neil.

‘It’s a great shame but it didn’t affect me to be honest; I wasn’t caught in it.

‘Sometimes you make your own luck with these things but sometimes you’re just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and the whole plan was to be out front so I could react to Jakob’s inevitable move from early and I was.

‘But I just didn’t have it today, I was close but not close enough today.’

Photo by Getty Images for European Athletics

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Laura Muir is ready for yet another major final at the European Indoors (on Saturday; 5pm our time).

The four-times champion had to contend with a remarkably slow race in her heat and burst through over the last 50m or so to win the race.

Laura’s 4:23.20 is the slowest winning time ever in a Women’s 1500m heat at the European Indoors but it mattered little.

‘It’s been a while since I ran at that pace and I think it showed! ‘ said Laura.

‘I wasn’t comfortable running at that pace but it is fine! Right at the start because the pace was chopping and a girl stopped really quickly so I almost went down, and I wanted to stay at the back longer than I did.

‘I was aware there was four us and I thought I definitely cannot at this pace give anything away, so I just had to stay strong at the finish. A couple of the other girls tied up a bit and I qualified,.

I feel like I conserved as much energy as I could for tomorrow.

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Guy Learmonth made it through to the 800m semi-finals which are coming up on Saturday (4.35pm our time).

Guy finished third in his heat race on Thursday evening but it was the quickest of the races and he progressed as one of the non-automatic qualifiers.

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Tags: European Indoors, Guy Learmonth, Istanbul, Laura Muir, Neil Gourley, Turkey