Gourley silver and Hunter Bell bronze close out GB & NI's World Indoors campaign

Neil Gourley (Stephen Haas, Giffnock North) and Georgia Hunter Bell (Trevor Painter, Belgrave) closed GB & NI’s World Athletics Indoor Championships campaign in Nanjing this evening with truly memorable medals in the men’s and women’s 1500m finals.

The pair, who both suffered disappointment with their performances at the recent European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, showed the best of British resilience in claiming global hardware to turn around their 2025 Indoor seasons.

Gourley, continues the long line of Scottish global medallists over 1500m in recent years, finally taking that coveted world medal that had eluded him and demonstrating the ability that has seen him consistently represent GB & NI in recent years.

And having been nominated as Team captain this week, he certainly put in a captain’s performance, running a clever race to use the pre-race favourite Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s tactics to pull him towards the business end of the field.

Cleverly negotiating his way through the traffic through some inside lane gaps that appeared, he crossed the line in 3:39.07, holding off Luke Houser (USA) and just unable to catch the Norwegian talent who won gold with 3:38.79.

Gourley said: “It feels really good. A couple of weeks ago I came away really disappointed from European indoor race, I had a point to prove not so much to anyone else but to myself, my team that have put in all the work and I am ready for something bigger. I am so glad I came out here and tried to prove that, repay all the people that have helped me get here.

“It was a change in tactics today. To some extent it was a case of if you can’t beat him, join him. So, it was the case ‘when he shifts up in momentum, I am going to be right there behind him’. That worked out better today it meant I fed off his momentum rather than looking around and react to what he is doing. It felt much better doing it that way. I felt in control the whole time, just left a little too much to do in the home straight to catch Jakob but really pleased how I competed on the world stage today.

“It’s brilliant. This time last year I watched world indoors as I was injured, really injured and could barely walk at this point last year and it was in my hometown in Glasgow. So, I was thinking about that and how I managed to make the line-up today. Everything else was a bonus and I went in with that mentality, anything is possible today.”

Immediately after Gourley’s final (and even managing to exchange a quick word of congratulations as the Scot embarked on his victory lap), Georgia Hunter Bell lined up for the women’s final and ran a superbly disciplined race to take the bronze in a PB of 3:59.84.

With Gudaf Tsegay (ETH) pushing on the pace and stretching away from the pack, Hunter Bell was forced to judge her own splits throughout to ensure she ran to the maximum effort and didn’t get run down after multiple laps of near solo running.

In spite of just missing overhauling Tsegay’s teammate Deribe Weltejay for the silver on the final lap, it was not a disappointment for Hunter Bell, who put aside the experiences of not only the European indoors, but of last year’s World Athletics Indoors in Glasgow where she finished fourth.

“It feels amazing I am so happy – I was feeling really motivated today! And really inspired by the team’s performances so I am so, so, happy,” she said.

“Apeldoorn was the toughest loss of my career so far, I really went in thinking I could win so to come 4th I was absolutely devastated. I pretty much didn’t get out of bed the next day, I had to let myself mourn that one, but I think the mark of being a good athlete is when it goes wrong, learning from it and coming back.

“I worked really hard to get myself back mentally this week, I knew the physical stuff was there, I was sick the week of Apeldoorn, but I knew I could physically get back. It’s tough out there you know, it’s just you and yourself and you have to believe in yourself… almost a bit delusionally believe in yourself!”

GB & NI’s final field event athlete competing in a straight final earlier in the evening was Scott Lincoln (Dale Stevenson. City of York), who having finished 4th at European level, stepped up to the global stage before heading back into preparations for the outdoor season.

He was admittedly disappointed with his 19.88m best for 12th position, but was eager to return to his new coaching set up in Australia and reset for the months ahead:

“It was a bad day in the office… again. It’s just one of them things. We are learning some new things. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Unfortunately, today it didn’t work. But we’ve got a fair while to work on things now ahead of the outdoors.

“I am going back to Australia tomorrow, so I’ve been away from the coach for three and a half weeks so heading back there to work with him again this week onwards and sort things out.”

GB & NI’s team of 11 finished 4th in the medal table with 4 medals including two golds.