George Mills looks back on a brilliant year

British middle-distance runner channelled the pain of missing out on the World Champs into producing a flourishing finish to the season

After missing out on selection for the World Championships in Budapest, George Mills had a choice to make – feel sorry for himself or get back to work. He opted for the latter.

Having finished third in the 1500m at the British trials, he had to look on as Neil Gourley and Elliot Giles joined eventual champion Josh Kerr on the team. The day after receiving the news, Mills travelled to St Moritz at 6am. The work began immediately.

“You had world-class guys over 1500m [at the trials] and I was gutted not to make the team,” Mills says. “I didn’t feel like myself for a little bit of time after but there’s a fork in the road at that point so you go two ways. One is that you think: ‘Sod this and I’m done for the year’ or you knuckle down.

“Trials was probably one of the worst days of my life. You care so much about how it is and my main goal coming into this year was to make the team for the World Championships. You fail that outcome but then you also have process goals. That was then the aim.”

Eighth and 15th place finishes at the Silesia and London Diamond Leagues – Mills was tripped in the latter – followed but only added more fuel to the fire.

The 24-year-old, who has been sponsored by Swiss brand On for over a year now, decided to help train team-mates Tom Elmer and Luke McCann in Switzerland as they prepared for Budapest, by joining their high altitude workouts in the 10-day build-up to the championships.

His decision paid off handsomely in the latter part of the season, where the hard work took full effect.

The Bowerman Mile at this year’s Diamond League final will be remembered for a multitude of reasons. Jakob Ingebrigtsen (3:43.73) and Yared Nuguse (3:43.97) went third and fourth on the all-time list, it was the fastest mile race since 1999 and no fewer than 11 men ran quicker than 3:50.

Third place went to Mills, who was just under four seconds behind the top two, but his 3:47.65 was still the seventh-fastest mile in the last decade and put him joint-15th on the all-time list. It was also the quickest mark by a Briton since 1985 and of his fellow countrymen only Steve Cram and Seb Coe are quicker over the distance.

Mills might have only raced over the mile on four occasions since the turn of the decade but over that time he has…