Leaner and fitter Guy Learmonth chases another personal best

Guy Learmonth wants to start punching above his weight after shedding the pounds in a bid to muscle into the middle-distance elite.
Guy LearmonthGuy Learmonth
Guy Learmonth

The Lasswade ace, 24, races the 800 metres in tonight’s IAAF World Indoor Tour leg in Karlsruhe fresh from running the second-fastest time of 2017 in Vienna last week.

It’s a major breakthrough, he admits, after toiling to make steps forward since he reached the 2015 European indoor final in Prague, but he claims the diet that’s seen him drop seven kilos has made him fighting fit.

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“I feel ready now,” he said. “I’m confident in my training. I want to go for it. I don’t want to hang about in the pack. I want to throw things out there and see what I can do and this is the perfect opportunity for that. I’m in good nick so I don’t want to waste an opportunity.

“I’ll definitely be chasing another personal best. I know I can get an outright PB this indoor season. I’ll be happy with a sub 1:47 but if I can break sub 1:46, I’ll be delighted. I want to progress. I’ll be going for it. I don’t want to hang about. I don’t want to come away slower than Vienna. That would be a waste of time. It’s a big race so I want to test the legs and see how I do.”

Elsewhere, Lynsey Sharp gets her second indoor outing of the winter over 800m at today’s Armory Invitational in New York while Pitreavie’s Eilidh Doyle will look to continue her unbeaten start to the indoor campaign over 400m in Mondeville with her eyes firmly trained on claiming European gold in Belgrade next month. “I’m doing a full indoor season,” the Olympic medallist confirmed.