Tokyo hat-trick! Brilliant moment with three Scots to contest Men’s 1500m global final (again)

Monday 15th September 2025

Photos by Gary Mitchell for Scottish Athletics in Tokyo

Three Scots will contest the Men’s 1500m final at the World Champs in another remarkable moment for athletics in this country.

Reigning champion Josh Kerr took second in the first of the semis to progress and Jake Wightman, the 2022 1500m champion, joined him in third place.

Neil Gourley’s qualification was altogether more nervy as he took the sixth and final automatic place in the second race in 3:36.93 – ‘winning’ the photo-finish by six thousandths of a second from South African Tshepo Tshite.

Dutch danger Niels Laros won the first race with Josh crashing to the track as he crossed the line but it was ‘job done’ for both Edinburgh AC athletes with Jake looking good throughout, too.

Jake in fact has spoken about just being on the start-line as redemption for a couple of injury-wrecked years but he’s in podium contention once again with the likes of Norwegian duo Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Narve Nordas now eliminated.

There are two Kenyans in that final and three from two Scottish clubs – Edinburgh AC and Giffnock North and it was great to see the New York Times shine a light on the grassroots to global stage development of Josh and Jake.

As it happens, the United States have no representative with Olympic champion, Cole Hocker, falling foul of DQ decision for jostling in the second semi-final. Tshite was duly moved into the final and Neil elevated to fifth place.

Photo by Sam Mellish for British Athletics

Josh was second in 3:35.53 and the fall after the finish line didn’t matter one jot.

‘Falling after the line is a lot more fun than falling before the line,’ he grinned.

‘Everyone’s obviously battling for spots, so I understand where the damage is – I probably shouldn’t have eased off near the end, but I just didn’t realize how busy it was behind me today.

‘I think Wednesday’s shaping up to be a fantastic, fantastic event. I’ve done a fair few of them, so I’m excited. I think I might be the only one that’s made the last five or six World and Olympic finals.

‘So that consistency is not easy to come by. But I take it day by day and race by race.

‘We have a great field coming in on Wednesday, I think. So I’ve got my work cut out for me, but I feel pretty confident.’

Jake was delighted, too, taking third in 3:35.56 and would love to make the most of his final chance.

‘These races are nerve-racking. You have to stay so switched on at the end, which was the case there.

‘I feel good, it is mainly now to rest and make sure I come into Wednesday as fresh as possible. Nothing to lose it is nice to just be back in a World final to give it a go.

‘More than anything I will look back to see how far I have come to get to this point, as it has not been the best couple of years for me.

‘There were points where I didn’t feel like I wouldn’t get back to this, as I felt there were so many things going against me. To stand on that start line is an opportunity again.’

Photo by Sam Mellish for British Athletics

Neil told BBC Sport he feared the reaction from his mum if he missed out.

‘I crossed the line and I didn’t have a clue if I was fifth or ninth there, honestly just put one shoulder down to try and get that photo finish and luckily I was on the right side of it,’ said the Giffnock North athlete.

‘I never felt that great tonight, even when I was sitting in the perfect place behind Cole Hocker. I was actually trying to make sure I was holding that spot. I had to just keep calm and hope that I’d have something in the last 50m, which I just about did.

‘The only time I needed some extra room was with about 100 to go. Apart from that was okay to be there. Unfortunately, Cole had the same idea as I did. He looked like he was going to go wider, but then cut back into the same spot that I was looking for, which meant that had to leave it to the last 50m.

‘It’s fine margins, and that’s why we train so hard. I stayed efficient.

‘I think I was ranked 31st on season’s best this year, so now sort of ending up in that top 12 in that final is, yeah, quite an achievement.’

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Photo from Gary Mitchell in Tokyo

Earlier on Monday, there was disappointing news overnight from World Champs as Sarah Tait‘s debut ended in injury in the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase.

The Lasswade AC athlete, the Scottish Record holder in this event, hurt her ankle early in the race in the water jump and unfortunately had to withdraw.

Across out platforms, we’ve been sending our support to Sarah in Japan from all across the athletics community in Scotland.

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Tags: Jake Wightman, Josh Kerr, Neil Gourley, Tokyo, World Champs