Team GB runner Neil Gourley wasn’t expecting much of a fuss. Sure, he had progressed to the finals of the 1500 metre race in Paris, but he hadn’t won a medal. So you can imagine the surprise when the native Glaswegian returned home to find a crowd of well wishers in his front garden.
Festooned with yellow and blue balloons, more than one hundred athletes and coaches from Giffnock North Athletic Club, where Gourley trained as a teen, gathered to celebrate the local track star.
Gourley told The Herald: “I was pretty shocked. I’d gone straight to train after my flight home.
“I wasn’t anticipating anyone else would be home other than my parents.”
Indeed, Gourley’s proud parents Ronnie and Wilma were on hand, helping to secure cake and refreshments for the crowd of friends and fans, including Gourley’s first running coach Claire Stevenson.
Once the initial surprise wore off, Gourley plunged into the crowd, chatting to club members and signing scores of autographs.
Gourley, 29, began last year on top of the running world. In February 2023, he set the British indoor record in the 1500 metres. Less than a month later, Gourley won silver at the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul, nearly upsetting two time Olympic gold medalist Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
But his journey to the Olympics wouldn't be so easy. Gourley suffered a series of stress reaction injuries over the winter and spring of 2023/24. The injuries were severe enough to leave him unable to get out of bed in February, just four months before the Team GB Olympic qualifiers. It seemed his Olympic dreams would not be realised for the second consecutive cycle, having missed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with a tear in his calf.
Yet, Gourley refused to go down without a fight, clawing his way into the qualifying meet in June, where he placed first in the 1500 metres and secured his place on the Paris squad.
Reflecting on his comeback, Gourley said: “It took a tremendous amount of crossing training, and a lot of work done on the bike.”
READ MORE:
- British Olympic Association hoping to have men’s football team at 2028 Games
- 2024 Paris Olympic Games comes to glittering close
- McColgan wants to make Scotland proud after learning Olympics fate
He managed to keep sharp by running virtually against other competitors during his recovery period, quipping: “There were lots of people that humbled me pretty quickly, but it kept me going.”
Despite his busy running and training schedule, Gourley takes time to visit Giffnock North whenever he is in Glasgow. In 2023, fresh from his success in Istanbul, Gourley stopped by two local training facilities; signing autographs, chatting to athletes, and letting youngsters try on his medals.
And the Giffnock North faithful are fully on board, championing Gourley as ‘our Olympic finalist.’ On August 6th, the day of the 1500 metre final, the club’s official X account tweeted:
“Absolutely nothing but immense pride to see Neil Gourley line up in the amazing Olympic Final today. All our members have been inspired by your resilience and efforts over the years. We can’t wait to hear all about your adventure in person.”
Gourley, who finished tenth with a time of 3:30.88, told the BBC that he had ‘no regrets’ about his performance. Reflecting on his time at the Olympics a week later, he expressed similar thoughts.
“[I felt] an overwhelming sense of relief… and a combination of work over a long, long time; and paying back a lot of people who [spent time helping me].”
Gourley hopes that his story will inspire the next generation of young runners. Thinking back to his years coming up in the club, he said: “I would have relished an opportunity to meet anyone competing at that level.”
Even when he did encounter a track star, “it was never anyone from Glasgow, from the Southside.”
Gourley added that he hopes young runners will look at his story and think “maybe I can do that if I apply myself.”
Taking time to thank his former coaches, Gourley noted that they “cultivated my love for the sport.”
“Seeing those people yesterday,” he added, “that was the ‘It was all worth it’ moment.”
There’s more to come for Gourley this year, as he ramps up for the remainder of the Diamond League track season. If all goes well, he’s set to run in Zurich on the 5th of September.
You can be sure the kids in Giffnock North will be cheering him on.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here