Neil Gourley ‘more nervous’ about speech as he reaches 1500m final

“I was trying to get myself up for this race because it was easy by comparison.”

With only two to qualify from each heat, plus one fastest loser, Gourley stormed to the front with three laps remaining – and stayed there to the finish.

“That was exactly how I planned it,” he said. “I wanted to go at the back and, since there were only six people in the race, just let people do what they wanted to do early doors.

“The pace was fairly honest, but I knew that, when I made my move, I wanted to make it stick. I didn’t want to kind of hovver.

“When I hit the front, that had to be it and just hold that position. I stuck to the plan and it went well.”

American Luke Houser made an impressive move to finish first in heat three ahead of Sweden’s Samuel Pihlstrom.

Spain’s Mariano Garcia and Portugal’s Melese Nader qualified from the final heat, with GB’s Adam Fogg in sixth.

Ingebrigtsen won the European Indoor title for a third time earlier this month, with Gourley in fourth, but the Norwegian’s best at the World Indoor was silver in 2022.

The Scot took European silver behind Ingebrigtsen in Istanbul the following year.