Gourley on his comeback, a high-pressure summer and 1500m rivalries

Gourley’s winter was what nightmares are made of, the nightmares of an aspiring Olympic medallist, anyway.

While the Glaswegian was watching his rivals nail their preparation for the Olympic Games, he was barely able to run even a step.

A brace of serious injuries since last summer meant Gourley’s winter training schedule was severely limited, and he could hear the clock counting down to Paris 2024 ticking louder with each passing day.

Coupled with that, his injuries – which were stress reactions in his pubic bone and his sacrum - meant he was forced to miss March’s World Indoor Championships in his home city all of which, unsurprisingly, amounted to a challenging few months.

“It was awful, to be honest – the least enjoyable six months of my career and I really did struggle,” the 1500m specialist says.

“The Olympics were definitely in my thoughts throughout and it was impossible to ignore that fact that everyone I’ll be up against this summer was doing everything they could to be ready for the Olympics. And I knew I’d be way behind, so that was tough.”

Physically, Gourley knew what he needed to do to regain his fitness. But he also knew that alone wasn’t enough.

Adding a sport psychologist, Misha Botting, to his support team allowed Gourley to entirely alter his mindset and that went a long way to getting him in the kind of shape he could barely have imagined was possible a few months ago.

“Misha was just what I needed when things were going badly,” he says. 

“He made me realise that I was living my life with one date circled in a calendar and because of that, everything else was passing me by. He was instrumental in making it clear that my only option was to take things day-by-day and that approach has helped a lot. And I then stopped worrying about how far behind I was.”

Gourley’s fourth-place finish at the Prefontaine Classic last Saturday, behind his fellow Scot, Josh Kerr who took the victory, was a considerable confidence boost for an athlete who went into the race entirely unsure as to how he’s fare in such a strong field, which also included reigning Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and 2022 world champion, Jake Wightman.

Gourley’s early-season form, he hopes, bodes well for his next outing at the European Championships, which begins in Rome on Friday, and for which Gourley is one of five Scots included in GB’s 72-strong squad, the others being Megan Keith and Eilish McColgan in the 10,000m, Jemma Reekie in the 1500m and Erin Wallace in the 800m.

Having won his first major senior medal last year – a silver at the European Indoor Championships – it seems well within the realms of possibility that another piece of silverware could be on the cards for the Giffnock North athlete.

And while he’s refusing to overstate his ambitions for next weekend, particularly given Ingebrigtsen will be in the starting line-up, he admits the European Championships is a vital event for him.

“Rome is particularly important for me because I’m out of practice racing,” he says.

“I don’t want to get too carried away with my goals but the performance I did last weekend at Prefontaine does give me confidence that I can go to the Europeans and try to win. It’ll be a very good test because of who’s going to be racing so as difficult as it will be given the competition, the start I had to my season bodes well and I’d be surprised if I don’t keep improving.”

Gourley’s primary goal for the coming weeks, however, is to secure selection for the Olympic Games, with the trials taking place at the end of this month.

His primary rivals for the three available slots will be his fellow Scots, Kerr and Wightman, and while Gourley is quick to admit it would be nice if he wasn’t up against two world champions in the battle for Olympic selection, the quite incredible standard of men’s 1500m running in Britain at the moment has, he believes, been a blessing in disguise for the trio and has enabled him to set his sights high for this summer.

“It is high-pressure season, there’s no doubt about that,” he says.

“But ultimately, I want to go to the Olympics and try and win.

“So while the level of competition in GB is tough, it’s also why, as a group, we’ve reached this level. These high standards breed higher standards and I’m not sure any of us would have reached the level we have if we didn’t have this internal competition.”

Globally, all eyes will be on the men’s 1500m over the coming weeks, with much of that down to the intense rivalry that’s developed between Kerr and Ingebrigtsen, with numerous contentious comments having been exchanged between the pair.

Gourley has a front-row view of the rivalry which, he believes, is an excellent thing for his event, and for a sport that’s desperately keen to grab the public’s attention.

“I’m a big fan of MMA and I love their trash-talking so bringing a bit of that to our sport is, I feel, a good thing,” he says. 

“I think it might be a bit more real between Josh and Jakob than some of it is in MMA, though. It was a pretty tense call-room at Prefontaine, more tense than I’ve ever experienced. 

“Their rivalry creates an edge in our event and I think it’ll get people watching this summer so I’m happy it’s happening.”