Andy Butchart revealed last night that he is still in the dark over his Olympic hopes, less than a week before he is due to travel to Tokyo.
The 29-year-old underlined he is on track to peak at just the right time by lowering his own Scottish 3000 metres record to 7:35.18 in coming third at the Diamond League leg in Gateshead.
Yet a UK Athletics investigation into disputed claims that the Rio 2016 finalist faked a Covid test in order to travel from overseas has still to clear Butchart, over a fortnight since it began – leaving him in limbo over whether he will lose his spot in the British team.
He confirmed: “It’s not been finalised yet. I can’t talk about it yet but I'm hopeful. Obviously I have regrets but I can’t talk about it yet until it’s all finished.”
Freshly-returned from training in France, Butchart has managed admirably to keep his mind on the job of gearing up for Tokyo and he surged on the last lap to make up ground on Mohamed Katir who won in a Spanish record of 7:27.64.
“It can’t get much better than that,” Butchart admitted. “Obviously I’d like to win the race. But I’ll take third place a few scalps and a personal best.”
Jake Wightman admits he came down to earth with a bump after a “stinker” in his last pre-Tokyo tune-up. The Scot blamed his late arrival from altitude for his fourth place in the Emsley Carr Mile despite leading at the outset of the last lap.
“I was just very heavy-legged. I think Font has just taken more out of me than I thought.”
Elliot Giles held off Jake Hayward to claim victory in 3:52.49 by just one-hundredth of a second. While Nicole Yeargin’s Diamond League debut brought the US-based Scot fifth place in the women’s 400m behind Jamaica's world medallist Stephenie Ann McPherson.
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