European silver medallist feels she has much more to give after her ‘best-ever’ three-week training block as she gets ready to race for a Doha place

Fresh from her ‘best-ever’ three-week training block and another PB, Eilish McColgan returns to Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium this weekend looking to book her place on the GB team for the IAAF World Championships in Doha.

The European silver medallist is one of seven athletes to have achieved the 5000m qualifying time but she’ll line up at the Müller British Athletics Championships as one of the favourites following her UK-leading lifetime best of 14:47.94 run in Hengelo in June.

After a spell spent training in St Moritz, McColgan continued her PB-setting ways at the Müller Grand Prix on Sunday by running a 4:24.71 mile behind Konstanze Klosterhalfen’s German and meeting record time of 4:21.11 and Canada’s Gabriela DeBues-Stafford, to add to the other personal bests of 4:00.97 for 1500m, 31:16.76 for 10,000m and 31:51 for 10km the Scot has clocked this year.

She feels there’s more to come, too.

“I felt a bit rusty,” she said after her mile in Birmingham. “It’s weird, because it’s been such a long season, I feel like back in May and June that was an entirely different season to now. It’s strange to keep racing.

“I had a really good three weeks of training, probably the best three weeks I’ve ever put together.

“I’m just excited now to get into a racing phase and see if I can run some more PBs. I feel like there’s more in me. Hopefully today was the first step towards a good racing phase.”

The women’s 5000m final takes place on Sunday, with European and Commonwealth medallist Laura Weightman, Commonwealth and European indoor medallist Melissa Courtney, US-based Euro Cross under-23 team gold medallist Amy-Eloise Neale and World University Games champion Jess Judd also racing with the Doha standard of 15:22 already achieved.

“Two weekends in the UK, which is quite unusual!” smiled McColgan as she talked about returning to the Alexander Stadium for the trials event just a week after the Diamond League meeting.

“I’ve not got far to travel this week so there’s no excuses for not having fresh legs for Sunday. I’m looking forward to it.”

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