Eilish McColgan banishes injury woes to reach final

Eilish McColgan: Personal best. Picture: Getty

The 22-year-old earned herself an outing at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow by defending her 3000m steeplechase title at the British Championships in Birmingham last month. However, a shin complaint limited her to just one more steeplechase prior to landing in Russia.

But, in the second of two 3000m steeplechase heats, she recorded a new personal best and Scottish record of 9:35.82minutes to qualify for tomorrow’s final. And McColgan, daughter of 10,000m Olympic silver medallist and former world champion Liz, said: “I’m so happy. I honestly couldn’t have asked for any more. Just to be at the start line after the year I’ve had with injury was a result.

“It was worth all those months of lying around and all I want to do in the final now is go out there and run another personal best. To run a personal best after the last eight weeks that I’ve had is absolutely unbelievable. I’ve only managed to run twice a week and everything else is in the pool or on the cross trainer.”

There was plenty more for the Scottish contingent in Moscow to shout about on Saturday with Susan Partridge finishing an impressive tenth in the women’s marathon.

The 33-year-old arrived in Russia ranked 95th in the world but kept her cool to break into the top ten, before immediately turning her attentions to next year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

“People were telling me where I was in the race but I was still quite surprised and, obviously, really happy too,” said Partridge. “This result gives me a lot of confidence moving forward. My main aim now is the Commonwealths. It is in Glasgow so I didn’t have to think about whether I would do it or not and I am really looking forward to it.”

Perth’s Eilidh Child is in the 400m hurdles heats today, with fellow Brits Meghan Beesley and Perri Shakes-Drayton. The three are in separate heats with Child looking to reach a World Championship final, having failed in the semis in Berlin in 2009 and Daegu two years ago.

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