Agony for Gibson despite battling win

KILBARCHAN’S Claire Gibson won her first UK title in the 1500 metres but was agonisingly short of the qualifying time for next month’s world championships.

Running on her own in a fiercely determined display, she set a new personal best of 4:17.38 but must now hope a slot opens up in next Saturday’s Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham to provide the kind of impetus she needs to go quicker still before the selection deadline.

“I’ve got to be realistic. I know I can do it, but it’s so hard on your own,” she said. “I’ve got a week left so it depends what kind of race I can get into. There’s no point in going through that again. I need someone to help me.”

Lasswade’s Guy Learmonth also achieved the required top-two placing for Istanbul, but may yet be denied the trip by the stopwatch, coming second to the outstanding Joe Thomas in the 800m.

“Joe got away from me, but I’m happy with the silver,” he stated. “Hopefully I can get into Birmingham and really go for it.” It is a measure of the depth in pole vaulting that Gregor Maclean could finish only fifth despite surpassing his own Scottish record.

The 20-year-old from Montrose raised his own personal bar to 5.35m but was still well short of the winning mark set by Andrew Sutcliffe. However, Maclean feels he is now equipped to make even further gains. “ I think 5.55 is a realistic target over the next few weeks,” he said.

Emily Stewart sliced over 20 seconds from her 3000m best, running 9:10.82 to end up fifth behind Hannah England. Kirsty McAslan was sixth in the 400m, won by Shana Cox, while Lisa Ferguson set a new personal mark of 6.11m in the long jump, in which Shara Proctor was victorious.