25 February 2020

Scotland athlete Eloise Walker 'inspired' from training alongside Laura Muir and Jemma Reekie

Eloise Walker has revealed how inspiring it is to train alongside middle-distance stars Laura Muir and Jemma Reekie.

The 18 year-old Scot joined Andy Young's training group last September.

Earlier this month she set a new national Under-20 record in the 3,000m. And at the recent British Indoor Championships in Glasgow she finished fifth in the 1,500m final with a new indoor personal best.

On her new training group she said: "It's amazing. Having Andy as my coach is great – he coaches world class athletes so he knows exactly what he’s talking about.

"And having Laura and Jemma on the start of each rep inspires me every time.

"They’re such down to earth, lovely people. They have this aura about them and I was thinking ‘oh my god, they’re amazing’. But when you speak to them, they’re just really normal people and you have the same conversations with them that you have with anyone. So it’s great having that.

"I’ve learnt so much from them. I’ve learnt how to train hard and also how to recover well. I wasn’t that good at doing that before but I’m getting PBs already so I’m really pleased to have seen improvements already having only been with the group for a few months so far."

Muir is the four-time European champion and Reekie has recently stormed into the limelight after she broke three of Muir's middle-distance records in the last month. 

But Walker's recent Scottish record of 9 minutes 21.30 seconds broke Reekie's original record by an impressive seven seconds. 

She added: "The Scottish record was a huge confidence boost because obviously Jemma has been running so well so I’m thinking if I can break her records, hopefully I can follow the same path.

"She’s only 21 and she’s got all of this international experience already. She messaged me before the final of the British wishing me good luck so that was lovely and it’s so inspiring having her in the group."

Walker will now begin her training for the outdoor season.

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