Eight Scots set for Tartan Thursday at world championships

Eilish McColgan and Laura Muir, pictured after last month's Diamond League meeting in Monaco, will race in the first round of the 5,000m on Thursday. Picture: NSJsport/REX/Shutterstock

The 16 Scots in the home team is more than double the previous bests of seven but perhaps the most illuminating stat when assessing the strides that have been made is that just ten years ago in  Osaka only two wore a British vest – Andrew Lemoncello in the men’s steeplechase and Lee McConnell in the 400m and relay squad.

Half of that 16-strong contingent will be in action tonight, led by GB captain Eilidh Doyle, who goes in the women’s 400m hurdles final in the evening’s penultimate event, with seven more Scots in heats action.

Doyle, who achieved her pre-championship goal of reaching another major global final as she squeaked in as eighth qualifier from Tuesday’s semi-finals, swaps the outside lane nine which she has occupied for the first two rounds for the inside lane two.

The 30-year-old from Perth will be relieved that the weather forecast for this evening is dry, in stark contrast to last night’s relentless rain for a race which  American Olympic champion Dalilah Muhammad starts as red-hot favourite.

At the start of the evening, Laura Muir returns to the track on which she suffered the heartbreak of an agonising fourth place in her favourite 1,500m on Monday as Caster Semenya edged her off the podium by seven hundredths of a second.

The 5,000m heats involve two more Scots, with Steph Twell and Eilish McColgan going in the second after Muir has taken part in the first.

Muir has never wavered from her desire to do the double here in London and, while it gives her another shot at a medal, it is difficult to gauge her chances in a longer event she has only run twice.

The 24-year-old student vet from Milnathort doubled up for gold at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade at the start of the year but that was a 1,500m and 3,000m combination.

She will get an early feel for the challenge as her opening heat contains some of the favourites for medals, with the top five to go through automatically from each race plus five fastest losers.

Muir’s PB at the distance was set indoors, when she broke Liz McColgan’s 25-year British record at a specially arranged race in Glasgow.

The Scot will be up against more seasoned campaigners at the distance, such as Hellen Obiri of Kenya, who beat her at the recent Anniversary Games, Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia, who took that incredible 10,000m gold at the weekend, and Yasemin Cam of Turkey.

British champion Twell and Eilish McColgan are in the second heat with Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia and Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands.

Another Scottish trio represent GB in the men’s 1,500m, with British champion Chris O’Hare joined by his Edinburgh AC team-mates Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman following that magnificent 1-2-3 at the trials.

O’Hare went on from that Birmingham triumph to emphasise his position as the No 1 British hope with some storming showings in the Diamond League but all three will hope to progress beyond a first stage in which the first six go through from the three heats, with a further six fastest losers.

Kerr leads off in the first, followed by O’Hare and then Wightman.

Former European champion and Commonwealth Games silver medallist  Lynsey Sharp, pictured, has had a curate’s egg of a season but will be hoping that she has timed her preparation right as her women’s 800m event gets under way.

The 27-year-old Scot is drawn in the fourth of six heats, with Margaret Wambui of Kenya comfortably the fastest on paper. Top three will secure automatic qualification for the semi-finals, with six further fastest loser spots available.

Sharp was disappointed to be beaten into third at the British Championships and had to rely on a selectors’ pick.

She was also beaten in an 800m by fellow Scot Muir in Lausanne. However, she ran a good 1.58.01 in Monaco recently, which suggested she was close to PB (1.57.69) form.