Eilish McColgan considers winning gold at the World Championships this summer as an “impossible dream” and is instead focusing on breaking the 30-minute barrier in the 10,000m. The 32-year-old Scottish athlete is recovering from the knee injury that forced her to withdraw from the London Marathon last month.
Eilish McColgan returned to light training at the weekend and thinks gold in Budapest in August is now less likely.
“That would exceed my goals right now. I think it would be a pipe dream right now, but I won’t set any real limits. To be in Budapest and to be at the start healthy would be a big achievement to be honest”, said the Scottish athlete.
Eilish McColgan won gold in the 10,000m at the 2021 European Championships and then at the Commonwealth Games 12 months later, before creating history in March this year by setting a new British record of 30:00.86 min.
“The big thing this year will be to run under 30 minutes in the 10,000m. I think there are only 12 women in the world who have done that – that would be a big achievement for me. Earlier in the year I had no doubts that I could run under 30 minutes. There’s a bit of doubt now because I haven’t been able to train for the last so many weeks”, added Eilish McColgan.
The only positive news for the middle- and long-distance runner is that her knee problem did not require surgery and she can now concentrate on completing her rehabilitation and improving her best time.
“To be in the top six fastest women in the world – that would be a great achievement”, added she.
Eilish McColgan is the 2022 Commonwealth Games 10,000m champion with the Games record, and 5,000m silver medallist. She is a four-time European Championships medalist, winning silver for the 5,000m in 2018 and 10,000m in 2022, bronze in the 5,000m in 2022, and a bronze for the indoor 3,000m in 2017. Eilish McColgan is the European record holder for the 10km road race, and the British record holder for the 5,000m, 10,000m, 5km and half marathon. She also holds the European best in the 10 miles on the roads.
