Edinburgh's Jake Wightman takes silver in Sheffield as Olympic finalist has crack at longer distance

The Olympic 1500m finalist debuted at the distance on Sunday during the BMC Indoor Grand Prix in Sheffield. Wightman ran 7:50.97 but was caught at the finish line by Italy’s Ossama Meslek

The runner – who also made his 10k road race debut two weeks ago – is looking to improve his long-distance endurance after missing out on the medals at the Tokyo games, finishing in tenth place after struggling down the stretch.

“I felt I lacked a bit of strength at the finish of that Olympic final,” said Wightman. “So I want to do things this winter to address that.”

There was similar success for the Capital’s teenage prospect Katie Johnson, who ran second in the women’s 800m with a time of 2:09.74. It was the ninth best all-time run for an under-20 indoor women’s run at the distance.

Jenny Selman, who works as a funding manager for Edinburgh Leisure, clocked up an indoor personal best of 4:14.81 to win the women’s 1500m.

Heptathlete Callum Newby put in a strong performance over his two days, finishing fifth in the overall table and taking gold among the under-23 age group with a points tally of 5275, also a personal best.

There was a podium finish too for East Lothian’s Adam Hoole in the under-20s age group. He took bronze with 5377 points, finishing behind fellow Scot Murray Fotheringham, who was just 19 points shy of the under-20s record.

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