Atheltics: Guy Learmonth hits mark in Vienna

Lasswade athlete Guy 
Learmonth clocked a European Indoor Championship 800m qualifying time of 1:47.94 in the Vienna Indoor Classic meeting in Austria last night in only his third race of the season.

The 20-year-old Loughborough University student, who is advised by Eyemouth’s Henry Gray, finished third in a close race won by Slovenian Zan 
Rudolf in 1:47.44.

The result puts Learmonth seventh in Europe so far this year and leaves him in a strong position going into next week’s UK Trials in Sheffield for the European Championships in Gothenburg in March.

“I was last with 150m to go,” said Learmonth.

“The race was fast from the start, but I didn’t really twig the pace we were going till 200m to go when I thought, ‘make a move now and stop mucking about’.”

“I felt great and finished like a train.”

The result is further good news for Scottish Athletics, coming on top of Shettleston Harrier Matt Gillespie’s four-minute indoor mile (3:58.55) in a meeting in Boston at the weekend.

Furthermore, Eilidh Child (Pitreavie) discovered that her run of 52.88 seconds for fourth place in the British Indoor International in Glasgow last Saturday was actually a Scottish Native record, beating Melanie Neef’s previous best of 52.91sec set back in 1994.

Sinead Dudgeon (Walker) still holds the national best at 52.47sec which could come under threat from Child, either this Saturday when she runs in the Birmingham Games at the National Indoor Arena or the following weekend at the UK Trials in Sheffield.