Win in Madrid boosts Sharp as Glasgow Games loom

Lynsey Sharp: career second best time. Picture: SNS

The European champion produced the second quickest run of her career, delivering a solo burst over the final lap to surge away from American rivals Charlene Lipsey and LaTavia Thomas to win in 1min 59.72sec, just five-hundredths of a second off the lifetime best the 23-year-old Scot achieved in Lausanne two weeks ago.

Sharp was delighted with the run and tweeted: “Super happy with a win in (not sunny) Madrid! Next up Glasgow 2014.”

The Edinburgh runner is one of Scotland’s best hopes of a track and field medal at the Commonwealth Games which begin in Glasgow on Wednesday.

She has endured a season disrupted by injury but appears to be coming to form at the right time and now has a chance to emulate her father, Cameron, who won medals at three Commonwealth Games, including gold in the 4x100m relay in Edmonton,  Canada, in 1978.

In an interview with Scotland on Sunday today, Lynsey Sharp says recent setbacks have made her stronger.

She said: “I do think I am mentally strong and I have seen that a lot, having been out for the past year, and I appreciate that maybe I took 2011 and 2012 for granted, thinking ‘yeah, this is great’ but now, I know what it felt like to have that all taken away from me for a year and that makes me very grateful and I relish every opportunity because a year ago things were the opposite.”