Josh silver lining as becomes first Scot to win back-to-back Olympic medals
By Peter Jardine, Head of Communications
Allan Wells claimed gold in the blue ribbon 100m event at the Olympics in Moscow in 1980.
A couple of days later the Scot landed silver in the 200m to give him a remarkable medal double.
For athletics afficionados of a certain age, that short wait for BBC commentator David Coleman – ‘Did Wells get it. Or not?’ – to confirm Wells had won the 100m title remains an unforgettable memory.
Decades earlier, and with the Second World War in between, Eric Liddell had famously won the Men’s 400m gold at the 1924 Olympics in Paris.
Liddell’s story is well-known and captured, albeit with heavy cinematic licence, in the movie Chariots of Fire. What is remembered less often is Liddell won a bronze in the 200m, too.
Now, however, we must add Josh Kerr’s name to those of Liddell and Well. Call it the icon track club, if you like.
Photo by Hannah Peters for Getty Images
Silver in a Men’s 1500m final laced with drama in Paris on Tuesday night gave Josh an ‘upgrade’ from the bronze he claimed in Tokyo three years ago.
But significantly it means he is the first Scot in track and field to EVER win a medal at more than one Olympic Games.
Right back at the start of the 20th century, Wyndham Halswelle won medals in 1906 and 1908 but we are assured by Arnold Black, the scottishathletics Historian, that the 1906 are not recongisned as Olympics. So it really is Josh The First.
It was not quite the coronation he had hoped for, of course. For months the reigning World Champion had made no secret his target was gold.
No doubt arguments will rage for some time on that public confidence but what is certain is that the hype is good for the sport and good for the athletes themselves in a financial sense and in terms of status in global sport.
What will stand the test of time, for sure, is the excitement generated by the race. Both in an enthralled Stade de France and across a global TV audience.
It’s no exaggeration, surely, to suggest that it will be talked about for as long as Seb Coe’s 1500m win – back when he shared a room with Wells in Moscow some 44 years ago.
Photos via Getty Images
Josh ended up sandwiched between Americans Cole Hocker, who won with a new Olympic Record of 3:27.65, and Yared Nuguse (only one…
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