World Athletics Championships: Jake Wightman & Steve Cram preview Budapest event

World champion Jake Wightman believes all four Scottish middle-distance runners at the World Athletics Championships can return with a medal.

But Wightman says Laura Muir, Neil Gourley and Josh Kerr in the 1500m, and Jemma Reekie in the 800m, can confirm this era as a golden generation.

"Genuinely I believe everyone across the middle-distance events has a medal chance," he told BBC Scotland Sport.

Muir runs in the women's 1500m final on Tuesday (20:30 BST), while Gourley and Kerr are through to the men's final on Wednesday (20:15).

Wightman added: "Laura has done it at every championships she has been at, pretty much. The women's 1500m is tough this year so it will be a challenge, but you can never discount Laura, she always steps up when it matters.

"Josh has already done it, Neil is in the form of his life and there is no reason why they couldn't get one.

"You have got Jemma back to her best, going I think third fastest this year, so there is every chance for her to get a medal."

Olympic bronze medallist Kerr has targeted world gold and Mo Farah's outdoor British 1500m record in 2023 while Gourley won his first major medal earlier this year with silver at the European Indoor Championships.

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Wightman, who burst past Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen to clinch a surprise world title in Eugene a year ago, believes the country should cherish the success of its middle-distance athletes.

Scotland certainly has remarkable strength in depth across the middle distances, with Muir amassing a sparkling collection of silverware at Olympic, world, European and Commonwealth Games level.

Wightman, Kerr, Gourley and the now-retired Chris O'Hare have picked up 10 major middle distance medals between them while six of the past seven British men's 1500m champions have been Scottish.

"I hope Scotland realises at the moment middle-distance running could almost be like a national sport," Wightman added.

"We have some of the best athletes in the world and if you look at what we had in the 1500m final in 2019 - three Scots in a world final, more than Kenya and any other nation - it is something I hope the country can be proud about.

"The worst thing about these eras is you don't realise you are in it until it is finished. So it will be once everyone has retired you look back and you are like 'actually they did pretty well didn't they?'

"It has just been a snowball, going back to when Lynsey Sharp picked up her first European medal and Chris O'Hare picked up his medals, it has just got better and better."

Former Olympic silver medallist Steve Cram is keen to emphasise the medals Scotland has won have been in acutely competitive events.

Cram, part of the legendary British triumvirate alongside Lord Coe and Steve Ovett that dominated middle-distance running in the 1980s, will commentate for the BBC during the championships from Budapest.

"Certainly back in my day we had some really good Scots kicking around. There was kind of a golden era then in the middle distances but I don't think anything like we are experiencing now," said the 1983 world 1500m champion.

"The medals that Laura and Josh have picked up, Jake last year, they are in events which are incredibly tough - it is not as though these are soft medals in events where the world standard has dropped.

"They have been up against a couple of the all-time greats, so it is brilliant to see."

The two 1500m world champions point to different reasons for the success Scotland is enjoying in middle-distance events.

Wightman believes there is an element of Scottish athletes feeling under-rated and therefore fuelled by a determination to prove people wrong.

"We used to go down and race within Britain, the Scots were always a bit underestimated, so it was a chance to prove yourself against the English runners," he said.

"And gradually we have kind of been nurtured a little bit better because there are probably less of us to be talent picked.

"We were picked by Scottish Athletics as kids to go on development camps whereas in my teenage years, I wouldn't be making any English teams. That kept me motivated."

"I don't think you can put a reason on it," adds Cram.

"My son went to school in Scotland, he went to school with Jake, and I did at the time think there was much more going on in Scotland around school - cross country and track meets - and representing Scotland in what we call the home country competitions.

"There are definitely some positives which I don't sometimes see in England around the schools and the club programme in Scotland."

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