'Strongest domestic field over 1500m in some time'

BBC News

17-07-2025

Scottish trio Josh Kerr, Jake Wightman and Neil Gourley line up for a "rare" meeting over 1500m in Saturday's London Diamond League as the battle for places at the World Championships heats up.They will be joined by England's Elliot Giles and George Mills, with the event topping the bill at a 60,000 sell-out London Stadium.Gourley told BBC Sport Scotland: "It's probably the strongest domestic field we have assembled over 1500m in quite some time."Of racing Kerr and Wightman, he added: "It's rare that we have been able to come up against each other. You would think that being from the same country you would line up all the time, but not really."
Kerr, 27, has Olympic silver and bronze medals, as well world outdoor and indoor golds.Gourley, 30, is a world and European indoor silver medallist, while Wightman, 31, topped the podium at the 2022 World Championships.Wightman, who missed last year's Olympics through injury said: "I would say the three of us have probably helped bring the best out of each other."Some will have run better than others at the end of a season. Obviously Josh has been doing that for the last couple of years and then Neil has had his own success at world indoors recently and I have had a couple of years where I haven't been racing, let alone been seen as a rival."It just chops and changes throughout the years as to how well you are running and what level you are seen at so, for me, it is probably a good thing that I haven't raced that much. "Therefore, I don't have as much pressure as someone like Josh coming into this as an Olympic silver medallist."Two automatic 1500m places at September's World Championships in Tokyo will be determined at next month's British Championships in Birmingham.However, a good showing in London could be important in terms of catching the selectors' eyes since there is sure to be another discretionary spot.Gourley said: "It might play on people's minds a little bit that they want to show that they are one of those top few guys in the country."I'm trying to run a little bit more freely and just take care of what I need to do at the British Championships, trying to treat that as a separate thing. "I don't want to be paralysed by the expectation of trying to make selectors happy."Wightman ran a personal best of three minutes 47:82 seconds for the mile at the Eugene Diamond League earlier this month, although that was only good enough for eighth place."I've had months of unbroken training and my body being in one piece, so I am hoping that is a good sign for the rest of the summer and I don't have to think about anything other than just racing and getting the most out of myself," he added."It's about gradually building the season, making sure that I have still got room to go and being at my best hopefully by Tokyo."