Wightman

Wightman has endured a long road to return to the position of fighting for the sport’s biggest prizes since his crowning moment three years ago.

But he has always maintained his belief that he would get there.

Wightman was accepting that the injury which kept him out of Budapest two years ago was a consequence of the demands of winning world, European and Commonwealth medals in an intense 33-day period in 2022.

But his hopes of returning to the global stage at last summer’s Olympics were cruelly ended by a hamstring tear just one week out.

By that point, he had already been wearing the team’s kit at their final training camp in St Moritz.

He sought a refresh this year, making the difficult decision to end his coaching partnership with father Geoff, who was commentating inside the stadium when Wightman outlasted Jakob Ingebrigtsen to win gold in Eugene.

In what has been a year of significant change away from the track, Wightman began working with his partner Georgie’s father, John Hartigan, and relocated to Manchester to be closer to his physiotherapist.

The only major change in terms of his training, he says, has been to respect his body more.

“Honestly, it has been a very, very bleak couple of years for me. A lot of times I doubted if could make it back to this level,” Wightman said.

“I have made some huge changes in my life this year. Moving to Manchester, getting a new coach, and I hoped they were for the best and hope that the big stage is here, I stepped up.

“I want to thank my coaching team and my Dad for getting me to this point in the first place. He did all the hard work bringing me to this level.

“It will take a while to process this. I’m a big believer that you get what you put in at some point. I’m just very, very happy that all the persistence has been worth it.

“I felt like I had another gear through the rounds. I did not know what would happen but I nearly got there.

“For me this is a gold. Just getting on the start line is a gold.”

Double Olympic and world Jakob Ingebrigtsen will also be competing over the 1500m distance with Arizona-based Giffnock North athlete Gourley and his fellow Scots.

“Off the top of my head, I think I’m ranked outside the top 30 in terms of season’s bests this year so that probably tells you a lot about the depth of the event just now,” said Gourley

“I’m pretty confident in saying I’ll finish higher than that. I’d love to outperform that ranking and I think I will, but it gives you a sense of how deep the event has got.

“Not just the people at the top – the top 20 are all quite close together and there are so many people running under 3:30 in the 1500m and that used to be a time that maybe one or two people a year would run.

“It’s now become so commonplace that it’s got silly, if anything. At the same time, it only counts for so much when you all line up at a championship and I’m looking forward to beating plenty of people ranked ahead of me.”

To help with that, Gourley has taken himself away to a special preparation camp in a location that makes him feel like he’s on holiday.

A fair few would swap places with him in Hawaii where, as well as some specialist training sessions, he’s also been able to enjoy a little rest and recovery.

“I have spent some time at the beach because it would be a bit rude not to,” he added.

“I’d love to learn how to surf, somebody’s got to teach me one day. Actually, I just kind of swim around in the waves until I crash out onto the shore. That’s about as adventurous as I get.”

It may take a bolder approach on the track but if he can safely negotiate the rounds in Tokyo, Gourley will feel on safe ground if he gets to another global 1500m final to round off his year.