British miler has already been much-travelled in 2025, but a change in outlook when it comes to the daily grind is already paying dividends for the world indoor silver medallist

Neil Gourley had to let his young inquisitor down gently. “You always get the best questions from the under-11 group,” he says, referring to a recent trip home to Scotland and a visit to a training night at his club, Giffnock North, on the south side of Glasgow.

“One kid asked me if I have a private jet! I had to tell him that he’s absolutely in the wrong sport if he wants anything like that. He might have to start swinging a golf club soon instead.”

Private jet or not, Gourley has certainly been clocking up the air miles. That trip to Scotland came right in the midst of what has been a busy start to the year for the US-based 30-year-old. He had stepped off a plane from China, brandishing the 1500m silver medal he had captured at the World Indoor Championships, and was soon on board another flight, this time to Kingston to take his place as a challenger at the inaugural Grand Slam Track meeting in Jamaica.

Those appointments followed hot on the heels of his fourth place at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, a 1500m title-winning performance thanks to a championships record at the British Indoor Championships and a British record-breaking 1000m run at the Keely Klassic in Birmingham.

He admits to some fatigue and being thankful for a “reset” when he speaks to AW but he certainly isn’t complaining about the workload. It was only in February last year when he found himself unable to walk due to a severe stress reaction in his pubic bone. Though he did eventually reach the Olympic 1500m final, just getting to Paris had been a race against time.

“I’m in a completely different place to last year,” he grins. “I've been enjoying it so much. I think when [things are] completely disturbed, unsettled, [just not going] to plan like it was last year, it just gives you a new kind of appreciation for when things are healthy and when things are going well.

“The sport really is enjoyable, and you kind of forget that sometimes when it's more of a struggle. Every race I did this year felt like it got better.”

Gourley is no newcomer to the top level, his first World Championships appearance coming in 2019, but he will happily acknowledge that he is still learning on the job. There was no better illustration of his performance levels rising than in comparing the 1500m finals at the European Indoors and then World Indoors.

Both featured eventual champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen sitting at the back, biding his time and then choosing his moment to strike. On the first occasion, Gourley had opted to sit in the group at the front who were just waiting for the Norwegian to push. When he did, chaos ensued and, in the melee on that steeply banked track at the Omnisport Arena, the Scot finished fourth and deeply frustrated. It wouldn’t happen again.

“About a week out from competing at the World Indoors, I was sitting with my brother and talking about something completely different and then, for some reason, racing crossed my mind,” says Gourley.

“I thought: ‘Next time I'm racing on an indoor track against Jakob, in particular, I'm going to make sure I go to the back and follow him’. I just had this weird realisation, like: ‘Why do I keep going towards the front and waiting for him to move, and looking over my shoulder and doing what everybody else is doing – waiting for him to be the aggressor? Why would I do that when I can just follow him and follow that momentum?’

“It was a change of approach that I felt would allow me to have more momentum when the race really kicked off at the World Indoors, and I felt much better doing so. It meant I was caught up less in the sort of carnage when people are reacting to a big move and it was a big learning point from the European Indoors.

“I felt that if I was reacting, or if I was moving as he was moving, I would just be in a much better position to close well, and that was the case.”

A close contest with the Olympic 5000m champion ensued and brought that silver medal.

It wasn’t so much about Gourley sticking to the old adage of “run your own race” as playing the situation in front of him.

“It’s about being efficient,” he adds. “The reason that Jakob likes to go to the back indoors, and he likes to move all at once is because [by doing that] you're not spending too much time on the outside lanes, jostling for position and getting involved in a lot of the nonsense that happens mid-race in a 1500m.

“It's something that he's done for a while, and he's good at it. To some extent, you always have to take into account what other people are doing, particularly in an indoor 1500m. It's very rare you get to completely run your own race, unless you take it out from the front, from the start, or you do something more like I was doing, which was going to the back and moving when it seemed right to move, rather than just being reactive.”

The lessons haven’t just been physical. Gourley’s wide sporting interests extend beyond athletics and the keen golfer was one of the millions of observers whose nerves were shredded last month by watching Rory McIlroy overcome some mental demons to finally become Masters champion. The 2023 European Indoor silver medallist has benefitted from his own shift in mindset.

“In terms of competition, I've never had a huge issue [mentally],” he says. “I really like competing. Race day is what I do it for, and the competitive side of things is way more interesting to me than the training.

“Where I have made some changes on the mental side of things is that I started working with a sports psychologist last year called Misha Botting who has been really helpful. He noticed that often I'm so keyed in on one date on the calendar that I focus on it for months and just let training kind of pass me by. I’ve tried to change the approach to: ‘Let's train and live for today's sake and not worry so much about whatever date that is in the calendar’.

“It was a massive shift for me, even though it seems quite obvious. For some reason, I always thought that if I'm really focused on one day, then it will have a better outcome. But it doesn't, really.

“It's much better to be focused on what you can do to get yourself better today. And that approach paid off big time last year when I was injured and I really needed to let go of what everyone else around me was doing. But, even now, I think you have greater outcomes by multiplying and stacking the days that went well, rather than focusing on what you need to do to be in shape on one certain day.”

With the World Championships not falling until September, the plan had always been for Gourley to have a big indoor season and then take a step back. He doesn’t expect to compete again until June and was able to enjoy some rare downtime in Jamaica, spending a few days with his family in Montego Bay after his Grand Slam Track exploits, where he was part of the group tackling the 1500m/800m double at Kingston’s National Stadium. It was a welcome change of scene – and not just because it took place in Caribbean climes.

“I just loved the whole format,” he says. “That was the biggest thing for me. I've always been someone that likes proper racing as opposed to some more pacemaker, time trial-esque style of racing. It's always suited me more. But, more than that, I always just think it's much better to watch. I went back and watched the meet and just had a good time watching.

“I think the 800m/1500m group in particular was really interesting across the men and women. It was unpredictable and it was everything I hoped it would be from a competitive standpoint.

“I've been doing this quite a long time, and I haven't had a format like anything like it yet. It’s definitely refreshing, definitely something I want to be involved in again this year and I hope that it picks up some momentum.”

He adds: “In that 800m/1500m group, there were a lot of people with points to prove.

One thing that took me by surprise a little bit is that I think the 800m guys are a lot nicer to each other. With the 1500m guys, the call room tends to be really quiet, but you've got the likes of [world 800m champion] Marco Arop who is one of the kindest guys you'll ever meet. He was making sure everybody was feeling good about themselves before the race, that kind of thing, so maybe we can learn a little bit from them. But I felt like there was a really good energy about it. We were all excited to see how it would unfold.”

Seeing the 800m Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi dismantling a field that contained the three 1500m Paris medallists in the metric mile was not what many had predicted, but Gourley insists he wasn’t that surprised.

“If there was one person I was worried about in terms of winning the whole thing, I thought Emmanuel would be the guy,” he says, “just based on what I'd heard, as well as a couple of things he'd done in terms of racing Kenya and the sheer talent that he is in the 800m itself.

“I knew he'd be dangerous in the 1500m if he was still with us with 200m to go and, sure enough, he was. I felt quite good closing until I saw him showboating a little bit in the home straight. I thought: ‘Well, I don't have that in me!’. He showed us up a little bit as 1500m runners, but that's an exciting element and it’s something that a lot of people didn't expect. It’s another face to add into the mix for an exciting event on the global level right now.”

The opportunity to take on the 800m was also a challenge relished by Gourley, who has ambitions to compete over the two-lap distance at a championships before his career runs its course. “I'd love to do it at a Commonwealth Games or something like that.”

Next year’s Games in Glasgow would surely be the perfect, with the home fans and his family there to cheer his every move. However, it’s rare for Gourley to be lacking in support – regardless of where he’s racing.

“My family takes any excuse to come and watch me race, but they always have a better time than me,” he laughs. “They were experiencing what Kingston has to offer, so sometimes I have to live vicariously through them when they come to watch me, to be honest with you.”

It might not have been talked about openly yet, but the Gourley clan will be hoping they can add Tokyo, and the World Championships, to their travel itinerary this year.

“They certainly won't be booking any flights just yet, but I'm sure they'll be putting pressure on by starting to tell me where they're going to be staying and what they're going to be doing,” says Gourley, who missed out on the Olympics in the Japanese capital in 2021 through injury. “I feel like sometimes I don't get credit for how hard it is just to make a team!

“It always puts the pressure on, when you know that people are planning to be in a certain country on the other side of the world and it hinges on your performance, but that's just part of the game and I kind of enjoy that pressure when it comes to a British Championships [qualifying] situation.”

There might not be a private jet in which to do it, but this is an athlete who is still clearly intent on going places.