Eilish McColgan won’t give up on her dream of a fourth Olympics – despite the Dundee athlete failing to finish in the European Championships 10,000 metres.
The 33-year-old, who won silver in the event two years ago and Commonwealth Games gold, pulled up after 6,000 metres having lost touch with the leading group on Tuesday night.
The Rome event was her first in six months following knee surgery.
McColgan has the Olympic qualifying standard ticked off but admitted “there was nothing there” at the point she decided to drop out.
“It’s no secret I’ve had a really disrupted build-up coming into it,” she said in an interview with Scottish Athletics.
“The last three or four weeks’ training have been really, really good and I’ve been on an upward trajectory.
“Before that I was way, way off.
“I really did feel I could come here and at least be relatively competitive.
“I thought if I could get into the top five, finish the race, whole body feeling good in a pair of spikes in a 10k, that would be the plan.
“Tick the box and say to the federation: ‘Here I am, I’m back, I’m not quite at top form but at least I’m showing something’.
“To drop out I’m absolutely gutted.
“There was nothing there.
“I got to half-way and thought: ‘I’m in trouble today’.
“I knew going through 5k that I was really going to struggle to keep it going. I even felt a bit dizzy towards the end.
“I don’t know. I don’t really have a reason other than I was hoping for a bit of a miracle after the lack of training.
“Miracles don’t really exist in distance running. If you’ve not put the work in you’ll get found out.”
Race against time
“I’ve got a couple more weeks to try and get myself in a strong position to be picked,” McColgan added.
“Megan, of course, is in absolutely top form so she’ll be in the team.
“I’d like to think Jess will get picked and hopefully myself.
“I’m not taking anyone else’s spot. I’ll only go if I feel like I can get under 31 minutes.
“I do feel training is going that way but maybe it was a little bit too soon.”
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