Commonwealth Games star Eilish McColgan has thanked her fans for their “lovely messages” after she missed out on the Sports Personality of the Year shortlist.
The top six are Perthshire curling idol Eve Muirhead, Euro 2022-winning footballer Beth Mead, England cricket captain Ben Stokes, world champion athlete Jake Wightman, snooker great Ronnie O’Sullivan and world floor champ gymnast Jessica Gadirova.
But many have expressed surprise that Eilish – who delivered THE moment of Birmingham 2022 when she won the 10,000m – didn’t get the nod.
EILISH MCCOLGAN OH MY WORD!!! 🤯
Scotland's fourth gold medal today and what a way to win it! 🥳
Matching her mother Liz's success in Edinburgh in 1986 by winning the 10,000m❤️ pic.twitter.com/ieTe4I6Dk0
— BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) August 3, 2022
The 32-year-old Dundonian wrote on Twitter: “Thanks for so many lovely messages today! Your support hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“It’s been an honour to receive some incredible sporting awards this year – a really special 2022!
“But only one athletics nominee for SPOTY this year – let’s ALL get behind @JakeSWightman.”
Career-defining year for Eilish McColgan
The event is being held on Wednesday night at MediaCityUK in Salford.
In October, Eilish reflected on her career-defining year in an interview with The Courier as she returned to her home city.
She followed up her Commonwealth 10,000m gold with 5,000m silver in Birmingham, and silver and bronze in the respective distances at the European Championships in Munich just weeks later.
The former Dundee High School pupil told us: “I didn’t really have a chance to process everything.
“You’re just in your own bubble. This is the first time I’ve been home.
“It’s been a natural time to really start to think about things. It’s actually been a bit overwhelming.
‘Surreal…it’s a lot bigger now’
“I was going for a run around Carnoustie and everyone was stopping me to say ‘well done’.
“It was surreal. It’s actually given me a lot of motivation for next year.
“I’ve always run for myself and my family but I feel it’s a lot bigger now.
“I’ve got so many people in Dundee and Carnoustie switching on their TVs to watch me now, which feels pretty special.
“It can be a lonely sport but at times like these that you realise you’ve got a lot of people behind you.”
