Athletics: Austrian run boosts Guy

Lasswade athlete Guy Learmonth clocked a season’s best of 1:49.52 in defeating Leroy Bryce of France to win his 800m race at the Vienna Indoor Classic in Austria last night.

But the Loughborough University student found conditions far from ideal for setting fast times as the field was split and he found himself in a very rough B race. The 19-year-old Scottish champion was taken through the bell in a slow 54 seconds and the 600 metres mark in an even slower 82.3 secs before bursting into the lead at the bell.

“That’s the scrappiest race I’ve ever been in – I’ve never been pushed around so much in my life,” he said. “But I’m really happy with my run – I felt I could have gone out and done it again half an hour later.”

Learmonth will get another chance to improve his time and get nearer the World Indoor Championships qualifying standard of 1:48.00 when he runs in the Inter-City Challenge in Sheffield on Saturday.

Joe Thomas won the other race in Vienna last night in 1:47.28, while another contender for a GB place in Istanbul in March, Ed Aston, clocked 1:48.90 behind Thomas.