UK Athletics chair Ian Beattie calls Inverness Harriers life member Megan Keith’s progress a ‘tribute to club system’ as 22-year-old continues Olympic Games build up at European Championships
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Megan Keith will continue her preparations for this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris when she competes at the European Championships in Rome tonight.
The 22-year-old will race in the 10,000m, which starts at 8.30pm BST.
She will be up against fellow Scot and Olympic hopeful Eilish McColgan on the penultimate day of competition in Italy.
Keith has already secured her spot at the Olympics, having taken the gold medal at the Night of 10,000m PBs last month in an event that doubled up as the Olympic trials.
It was back in March that she beat the qualifying time, and there is also the potential for her to double up at the Olympics as she has recorded a qualifying time in the 5000m too.
Ahead of the European Championships, chair of UK Athletics Ian Beattie said of Keith’s meteoric rise: “There is no doubt in my mind that elite Scottish athletes are great adverts for the pathway. Megan is a great example of that.
“She was competing in Scottish cross country events and not so very long ago.
“Her progress in the last 18 months or so has been remarkable and well done to her coach, Ross Cairns, and to Megan for that development. She is an international class athlete and that is a tribute to our club structure.
“So I think the link between elite and grassroots is there. The inspirational effect is visible on people in clubs cannot be underestimated.
“Going back 10 years, I think the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow are a big part of that. Scottish folk saw that and wanted to be part of that – folk in our clubs, I mean.”
Keith is no stranger to the European stage, albeit not always in the 10,000m.
Just last year, she won gold in the European Under-23 Championships across 5000m, before going on to win a pair of golds at the European Cross Country Championships in December.
There, she stood at the top of the individual podium in the under-23 race as well as claiming team victory in that same age bracket.
That followed a silver in the same competition at 2022’s event in Turin, which in turn came off the back of under-20 gold in 2021 in Dublin.
