Liz McColgan answered the bell with a magical marathon win in 1996 – now London’s calling for daughter Eilish.
Eilish has already proven herself to be made of the same stuff as her world champion mother.
A Commonwealth Games gold and silver medallist after her performances at the Birmingham games last year, Eilish is a star athlete in her own right.
She took 10,000m gold in England’s Second City by blowing away a World Cross Country Champion, Kenya’s Irine Cheptai, at the end of a race-long duel.
A spine-tingling final lap saw her emulate mum Liz, who won the same event at the Commonwealth Games in 1986 and 1990.
Now, after confirming she will make her London Marathon debut in April, the Dundonian could be about to repeat another feat of Liz’s.
The Hawkhill Harrier admits it feels “surreal” to be preparing for the same “iconic race” her mother won nearly 30 years ago.
Mother knows best…
Eilish told the event’s official website she feels her running career was always going to lead her down this road – and her mum knew it.
“When I was 12 years old, she said: ‘One day, you’ll be a marathoner’,” said the seven-time national champion,
“To be honest, that petrified me as a kid but, as I got older, I think deep down I knew this was my path.”
@EilishMccolgan is back in town for her TCS London Marathon debut! 🙌#LondonMarathon | #EliteWeek pic.twitter.com/EGEoBzvSoM
— TCS London Marathon (@LondonMarathon) January 31, 2023
Eilish, 32, has represented Team GB at the 2012, 2016 and 2022 Olympics.
Likewise, she has represented Scotland at three Commonwealth Games and has experience in the steeplechase, the 1,500m, 3,000m, 5,000m and 10,000m.
And she has enjoyed enormous success, being a four-time European Championships medallist in addition to winning two medals in Birmingham, her silver coming in the 5,000m.
A phenomenal 2022 saw Eilish notch a hat-trick of records: becoming the fastest Briton in a 5K road race, beating the British half marathon record by 21 seconds and running the 10K in 30:19, a European best.
The next challenge will be her first London Marathon.
Will we see a repeat of 2022's @OfficialBigHalf in London come 23 April? #LondonMarathon | #EliteWeek pic.twitter.com/JbYa9bDOBj
— TCS London Marathon (@LondonMarathon) January 31, 2023
The road and the miles…
The achievements of Dundonian Liz McColgan are almost too numerous to mention.
Arguably Scotland’s greatest-ever sportsperson, she enjoyed Commonwealth Games glory in 1986, on home soil in Edinburgh, and again 1990, in Auckland, New Zealand.
She took silver at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, although so strong was her competitive nature, so agonising her disappointment that she put the medal in a drawer and didn’t look at it for 16 years.
Then, of course, she became world champion in Tokyo in 1991, the same year she took home the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
Safe to say, then, that Liz – winner of the 1992 World Half Marathon Championships, the 1991 New York City Marathon, the 1992 Tokyo Marathon and 1996 London Marathon – will have plenty of good advice for Eilish ahead of April’s race.
Of her win in London nearly three decades ago, Liz previously told us: “London was the only time when I’ve been racing where I’ve really heard the crowd, and felt that their reaction has really pushed me on and made me run even harder.
“That is why London is the best, because you get the benefit of the home crowd.
“If you are running in New York or Tokyo or wherever, the crowds are big, but they are just cheering whoever happens to be going by.
“If you are in London and you are a British runner doing well, they just go mad. It’s an amazing feeling.
“It doesn’t matter whether you are a fun runner or an elite athlete, the marathon is a real roller-coaster experience and over the course of the race you will have one moment where you are feeling great and the next minute you just feel rubbish.
“What you have to try and do is get through the bad bits, and that is where the crowd can play a huge part in a race like London.”
Liz added: “There is a huge benefit for the British runners in the race, because the crowd are there to pick you up all the time.
“That can really help you pick your game up.
“The crowd makes a tremendous noise, and it really lifts your spirits and boosts your adrenaline.”
Eilish has spoken of how the noise of the home crowd helped her enormously as she pushed through the pain barrier on that final lap of the 10,000m in Birmingham.
She is sure to receive a similar outpouring of support in London this April but will it be enough to help her repeat her mother’s famous win?
Will the tale of the tape be one we’ve read, and loved, before?
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