LAST summer had the potential to be the highlight of Neil Gourley’s career.
Instead, the moment that stands out for the 26-year-old was lying on the floor of an empty gym, distraught at the realisation that he would not be fulfilling his ambition of becoming an Olympian.
It was the culmination of a string of bad luck for Gourley, who has established himself as one of the country’s strongest middle-distance runners and a challenger for major championship medals.
However, a bout of Covid in March, contracted while competing at the World Indoor Championships, led to a calf strain in his push to regain fitness.
As the Olympic trials approached, Gourley believed he was almost at the point he needed to be to make it on to Team GB.
Until that fateful day in the gym.
“I was on the treadmill and was in the last minute of my session and something in my calf went and in that second, any hope I had of making the Olympic team went,” he recalled. “I fell off the treadmill and lay on the ground in this empty gym crying because I just knew that was it over. I knew I was going home to tell everyone it wasn’t happening.”
So instead of Gourley being in the thick of things in Tokyo alongside his 1500m compatriots Jake Wightman and Josh Kerr, who ultimately won Olympic bronze, the Glaswegian was left watching the greatest sporting show on earth from the comfort of his own couch.
It was, admits the American-based Giffnock North runner, a testing time but he has bounced back in impressive fashion. After a stint at altitude training at the end of last year, Gourley demonstrated his improvements by smashing his 5,000m personal best and claiming the Scottish record in a time of 13 minutes, 34.35 seconds.
“Injuries are part of the sport. It’s very rare to go through your career and not have an injury or illness derail you somewhere along the way. Getting injured at the time I did was very tough to take, though,” he said.
“From last August onwards, I’ve been really fit and have felt good. Everything that happened has allowed me a bit more time to get ready for the upcoming season and be ahead of where I normally am. I’m healthy and it’s a much simpler game when you’re healthy.
“Before Christmas, I had a rough idea I might have been in Scottish record shape from my times in training but you never really know without racing if it’s going to translate into a big PB. But I didn’t think I was quite in the shape to run a time like that, so it was a good confidence boost.”
Gourley’s hope is that his improvement over the longer distance will quickly translate into faster times in his speciality event, the 1500m.
With the athletics calendar this summer bursting at the seams – the World Championships, Commonwealth Games and European Championships all take place within just a few weeks of each other – Gourley hopes he does not have to wait long to make amends for last year.
“I feel like I’ve got plenty of fuel for the fire even without last year but of course it’ll make everything mean a bit more in terms of redemption,” he said. “Sometimes, though, my problem is pushing too hard and not knowing when to ease back. Sometimes I put the pressure on a little too much and I’ll do a session I shouldn’t or do an extra rep when I shouldn’t so I need to be aware of that.
“I’m so glad that this year is so jam-packed and it’s good I’ll have the chance to put 2021 behind me.”
With Kerr having proved that it is possible for British 1500m runners to grab silverware at the biggest events, Gourley, the 2019 British champion, is
similarly ambitious.
“I’ve always set targets pretty high. There’s lots of goals you need to hit along the way but when I speak to my coach, he’s certainly of the opinion that I should be trying to win a medal at the World Championships,” he said. “Of course that doesn’t mean it’ll happen but rather than just target making the team and then see what happens, aiming high is definitely the best approach for me.
“As long as I’m in this sport competitively, I’m fully intent on winning medals. I’m not naive about the difficulty of that but it’s what I’m aiming for. It’s so tough to make the British 1500m team so the advantage of that is that if you do make it, you know you’re in a place to challenge for major medals.”
With Gourley based in America, his initial plan had to be to remain State-side for the remainder of the winter, as well as spring.
However, he has recently felt his competitive juices begin to flow.
“Initially, the plan was to keep things within the US but the more I think about it, World Indoors [in March] is definitely a possibility so if that remains the plan, I’d come back to the UK for the trials in February and try to make the team,” he said. “I’m so competitive that if things are going well, I’m going to put myself forward for everything I can.”
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