Eilidh Doyle will have quite an incentive when she starts plotting her indoor season. With her relay gold and silver from this summer, Doyle has joined Yvonne Murray as Scotland’s most bemedalled athlete on 11.
At 29, she will surely soon have that honour all to herself such is her outstanding form and her first chance will be at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade in March.
“It is really nice when you hear a stat like that,” said Doyle. “Over the past few years, I have been consistent which has been the key to my success.
“I’ve been very lucky that I have been relatively injury free in my career.”
Doyle was the European 400m hurdles champion in Zurich in 2014 and the previous year she had an equally successful time at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Gothenburg when she won 4x400m relay gold and 400m silver.
This summer in Amsterdam, she did not defend her hurdles title but still ended up with European gold after running the third leg in the triumphant 4x400m relay before earning a significant landmark at the Olympics Games in Rio where she won relay bronze.
It was Scotland’s first Olympic medal since Elliot Bunney’s 4x100m relay silver in Seoul, 28 years earlier.
Speaking to scottishathletics.org, Doyle added: “I was totally oblivious to the history factor in terms of being the first Scot to earn a medal in the Olympics since 1988. But it wasn’t until later that I found that out and I thought 'Wow. That’s something special'.”
EILIDH DOYLE’S 11 MEDALS
Olympic Games
Rio 2016 – 4x400m relay bronze
World Championships
Moscow 2013 – 4x400m relay bronze
Beijing 2015 – 4x400m relay bronze
European Athletics Championships
Zurich 2014 – 400m hurdles gold, 4x400m relay bronze
Amsterdam 2016 – 4x400m relay gold
Commonwealth Games
Delhi 2010 – 400m hurdles silver
Glasgow 2014 – 400m hurdles silver
World Indoor Championships
Sopot 2014 – 4x400m relay bronze
European Athletics Indoor Championships
Gothenburg 2013 – 400m silver, 4x400m relay gold