‘I couldn’t walk in February. Now I’m in an Olympic final’

Neil Gourley couldn’t walk in February. Yet here he is in August, in Paris, standing in the Stade de France, talking about reaching an Olympic final for the first time.

Little wonder the 29-year-old pauses and gazes over his shoulder at the packed arena, a riot of lights, colour and noise as the men’s 100m final looms.

The Glaswegian didn’t think he would be here. Not in earlier this year when he was stricken with a back problem. And, perhaps not for a lot of a career scarred with injury and misfortune.

And yet a little before 20:00 BST on Tuesday, under these lights and with the world watching, Gourley will be one of 12 men competing for an Olympic 1500m medal.

“It feels pretty special,” he tells BBC Scotland. “If you’d told me in February I’d be here, when I was having real injury issues and could quite genuinely not walk… it’s something I’m really proud of.

“In athletics terms, this is as good as it gets. I try not to think about it pre-race but afterwards you’ve got to just take a moment to appreciate just how good it is because these are fond memories right here.”

Gourley has come a long way from Giffnock North, where he ran in his youth. But as different as the magnitude of the Olympics is, some things are very familar.

On the start line beside him in Paris will be old pal Josh Kerr.

He’s also a long way from home, from Edinburgh Athletics Club, but he’s also world champion. And the man expected to be scrapping for gold with Jakob Ingebrigtsen.

Those two are the big dogs in the 1500m but a bronze medal is there for someone. Might that someone be Gourley?

“I want one more crack at this,” he says. “And thankfully I’ll get it again on Tuesday night when the stakes are even higher.

“I just need to bide my time and use the weapons I have, which is the ability to close well. But that doesn’t matter if I’m not there with 200m to go, so the goal is to be there and give it everything on that last stretch. It’s not complicated, it’s just hard.”