During the month of February three Scottish angels took flight at some World Indoor meetings. At the same time as displaying to us their celestial, God given gifts, they delivered to us a divine message of hope and renewal, and perhaps what we should expect in this forthcoming Olympic summer. They also gave us something to watch on the old i-Player.
Angels in February
Love in Liévin
In the week leading up to the Feast of St Valentine's, the World Indoor Tour arrived at Liévin, an old mining town near Lens in France. Think Longannet in Fife, but with nicer weather.
In the spirit of St Valentine's, Scotland's crush rested on one of our few remaining global exports other than whisky and tartan tat - Laura Muir. 2021 is a big year for Laura. British Athletics have spent a great deal of time and effort putting Muir at the height of some fathomless pedestal in the run up to major championships for the past six years. With a 5th at Worlds in Beijing 2015, 7th at Olympics in 2016, 4th at Worlds in London in 2017, and 5th at Worlds in Doha, it has been close, but regrettably, Tokyo is likely to prove even tougher.
Laura set off in the 1,500m, and sat back in the initial part of the race, gliding across the ground serenely with her distinctive upright stance. As she did so, the pacers and Ethiopia's Gudaf
Tsegay stormed off at the front and clocked a coffee-choking 58secs at 400m. With 800m to go, it looked like Tsegay might tire, but contrarily, she pushed on again hard, with Muir being unable to respond.
In direct contrast to Muir's perfect upper body form, Tsegay appears to enjoy a coveted skill in being able to drive momentum without the use of her arms. Despite this hindrance, Tsegay set a new indoor world record of 3:53.09mins, pouring cold water on the commentator who had suggested that the early pace was suicidal. Laura, despite her usual master class of form and technique, finished second in three minutes 59.58 seconds.
Love in Liévin
Therein lies the problem for Muir. Despite her divine talent, and her ability to run a 3:59mins in the midst of a bleak February, the grim reality is that the winner was a full six seconds ahead of her, and 2 seconds ahead of her outdoor PB. Tsegay, Hasan, Kipyegon...etc. The level of world women's 1,500m running is staggering. With her anglelic kick, Laura needs the Olympics to be a tactical affair.
Earlier in the evening, fellow Scot Jemma Reekie set off in the women's 800m A race. Reekie set off near the back in 6th, biding her time, and tracking new girl on the block Keely Hodkingson. As we have seen before, the ability of Reekie to both read and control a race hundreds of metres before it has actually happened, is supernatural. This started to shine brightly through the clouds as the race developed. 600m to go, 6th place. 400m to go, 4th place. 200m to go, 1st place.....
Rather like Cupid drawing his bow on some unsuspecting mortal on St Valentine's, both Alemu and Hynne were drawing their bows in the last 100 metres in an attempt to strike at Reekie. Alemu moved to the outside as Hynne moved to the inside. But Reekie is neither mortal, and nor was she there anymore. Reekie was gone, taking the victory in 2:00.64. As we have seen on several ocassions in the last 24 months, the Young Pretender is talented, hungry and an astute race tactitian, and in the opinion of this writer, is the favourite Scottish endurance athlete to take an Olympic medal.
The City of Angels
The next World Indoor event took place in Toruń in Poland on 17 February 2021. In contrast to the former mining town of Liévin, Toruń is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Boasting UNESCO World Heritage Site status, it's Old Town boasts beautiful Gothic Revival architecture, old city walls, and dreaming spires, which affirm its nickname as 'The City of Angels'.
The City of Angels
It was in this City of Angels, that Scotland's angelic host, Neil Gourley, took flight. On the start line of the 1,500m, and against a flood of Nike vests, Neil stood clothed in the glowing yellow majesty of a Giffnock North vest. The media were quick to suggest some sort of nostalgic amateur beauty in this situation, but in reality, it is desperately sad that an athlete of the talent and stature of Neil Gourley (1,500m finalist at Worlds in Doha) does not hold an individual sponsorship.
Neil set off very sensibly, going through 400m in 6th place tracking a local lad, Michael Rozmys. Things remained much the same up to 500m to go, at which point the pacer drops out, and Neil takes order moving to 4th and now tracking the elder statesman of European athletics, Marcin Lewandowski.
With 400m to go, things heat up. The Ethopian, Barega, and the Kenyan, Birgen, seek to put some distance between them and the Europeans at their heels, however, and like Archangel Michael in a heavenly fight with a dragon, Lewandowski wasn't going to let them get away.
With 200m to go, Birgen starts to implode, and like a fallen angel, is drawn down into the fiery depths of the chasing pack, whilst Barega adorns wings and takes to the skies. Neil watches down on all of this, sitting perfectly in 4th place. Into the last 100m, and the viewer rather hoped that Neil would find something to get past Lewandowski, but to no avail. Neil finished 3rd in 3:35mins with a new PB (better than his outdoor PB) and 3rd on the Scottish all-time list.
Neil's race was very different to Jemma's and Laura's. As Laura and Jemma largely dictated their races on their terms, perhaps reflecting their world level talents, Neil cautiously sat back, and to good success. Qualification for the men's 1,500m for Tokyo is going to be brutal, but Neil seems to be reading from a scroll that says he is in a good place for it.
Scotland's Shame
Closed
After all of the uplifting scenes of our angelic heroes care of Aunty Beeb, our life here down on the Scottish earth remains free from grace and glory.
For a country that has been plagued for decades by poor health, drug abuse, and childhood obesity, our collective failure as a Scottish nation to provide any organised sporting provision in the outdoor environment for our younger generation of athletes during these last two months is so sad that it defies even satire.
The athletics clubs across Scotland, and the collective cocophony of facility providers and those in control of them (local authorities, local trusts and the Scottish Government), both agree that sport is a priority for our young people and should be high up on the agenda. But when the 13 year old who could be the next Laura Muir, the next Jemma Reekie or the next Neil Gourley can't access their local track or any form of organised training, one of us is mistaken, and the other is lying.
The angels wept.
