Eilish McColgan wins Commonwealth Games 10,000m to complete family hat-trick

BIRMINGHAM, England — Scotland’s Eilish McColgan followed in her mother’s footsteps when she won the Commonwealth Games 10,000m title in gritty style on Wednesday, battling past Kenyan Irene Cheptai for an emotional victory in a Games-record time.

Liz McColgan won the title in 1986 and 1990 — as well as the world title in 1991 — and Eilish has now written her own script after a series of near-misses in big events.

McColgan set a strong early pace on Wednesday and was eventually left alone with Cheptai for the final four laps before gritting her teeth to surge clear over the last 150 metres and win in 30 min 48.60 sec.

Kenya’s Sheila Kiprotich took a brave bronze after appearing to suffer an injury with more than four laps to go, limping on to finish clear of Uganda’s defending champion, Stella Chesang.

McColgan struggled in the world championships in July after a bout of illness but arrived in Birmingham finally fully fit.

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“It’s just been such an up and down year with COVID, another illness and a couple of other niggles,” she said.

“Having my family here was great, and the crowd on the last 200m it was vibrating through my body. I have never sprinted like that in my life, and without the crowd I could never have done that.

“This is my third Commonwealth Games and my fourth [different] event so I finally found an event. I came sixth every time so to win it tonight was so special. You could see I wanted gold.”

Liz McColgan said: “To witness your daughter win in the same event is incredible. She just ran the race I knew she was capable of running.”