Athletics: Learmonth sets another personal best at Bislett

Lasswade’s Guy Learmonth notched his fourth personal best in four outings as he finished second in the 800 metres at the Bislett Stadium, Oslo, last night in an Olympic Qualifying B standard 1:47.14.

Having won the Scottish 400m title at Scotstoun last Sunday in another best of 48.00 seconds, after setting a personal best of 48.18 in qualifying the previous day, the 20-year-old returned to the scene of his last 800m outing to hack another half second off his best behind Gareth Warburton, who set a Welsh record of 1:44.98.

While Warburton was putting himself in the frame for London, Learmonth may have strengthened his case for selection for the European Championships in Barcelona beginning on June 27.

“My legs felt very tired in the last 100m so to get a PB was a bonus,” said Learmonth, whose race was outside the Diamond League events. In the same meeting Dundee’s Eilish McColgan smashed her own Scottish National record for the steeplechase by six seconds with a time of 9:38.45 which is an Olympic A standard and the second fastest by a British athlete this season.

Another Scot, Steph Twell, was rewarded for her persistence, clocking 4:07.99, cutting two seconds off her season’s best for the 1500m.

Lynsey Sharp (Edinburgh AC), who will graduate with an Honours degree in Law at Edinburgh University on June 20, heads for Moscow for another bid to crack the 800m A qualifying time of 1:59.90 at the IAAF World Challenge on Monday.

Sharp, whose best this season is an Olympic B standard 2:01.30, clocked 2:01.79 in Poland last weekend in a race won by England’s Marilyn Okoro in 1:59.75.