EXCLUSIVE: Eilish McColgan is battling back from injury, tragedy and a bizarre sponsorship row as she hopes to make her Olympic dream a reality in Paris... a year after Commonwealth glory

It had been a blissful break. After months of misery with injuries, Eilish McColgan was enjoying six weeks in the sun in Qatar, a chance to rehabilitate her knee but also reunite with her mum Liz, who lives in Doha.

‘It was the longest time I’ve spent with my mum since I was a kid,’ the Dundee distance runner tells Mail Sport. ‘Usually, I just bounce from place to place, so it was nice to slow down, spend time together and have a bit more normality. We just couldn’t have imagined the trip ending in such a sad way.’

It was on the morning of November 9 that tragedy struck, as John Nuttall — Liz’s husband and Eilish’s stepfather — died from a heart attack. The former British 5,000m runner, who competed at the 1996 Olympics and ran an athletics club in Doha with his wife, was just 56.

‘It just reinforces to take every day as it comes rather than worry about the future,’ says McColgan, who turned 33 yesterday. ‘Try and spend time with loved ones as much as you can.’

That is what McColgan has been doing for two weeks, extending her stay in Qatar to support her grieving mum.

‘She is a strong individual, she has been through a lot and I know she will continue to be strong,’ says McColgan, who returned to the UK this week for Nuttall’s funeral in Preston on Friday. ‘She gave birth to me in 1990 but had her sponsors drop her, yet less than a year later became world champion. It just blows my mind. I’m very proud of her.’

That pride comes across in a new BBC documentary, Eilish McColgan: Running in the Family, which airs next week. Of course, the high point of the film — and of her career so far — is McColgan’s rousing victory in the 10,000m at last year’s Commonwealth Games.

In front of a full house in Birmingham, she surged past Kenya’s Irene Cheptai down the home straight to claim a title her mum had won in 1986 and 1990. ‘It still feels like it didn’t quite happen,’ she says. ‘It’s weird watching it back and hearing and seeing the crowd going absolutely bananas.

‘To have 32,000 strangers cheering you on, it was something very, very special to me. It is a memory that will last me a lifetime.’

McColgan went on to win 5,000m silver in Birmingham, then 10,000m silver and 5,000m bronze at the European Championships. ‘An absolute dream season,’ she says.

This year began brilliantly, breaking Paula Radcliffe’s British 10,000m record in California and then her own national half marathon record in Berlin. But it ended horribly, a knee injury curtailing plans to make her marathon debut in London — an event her mum won in 1996 — and ruling her out of the World Championships and the rest of the season.

‘After breaking two British records I was in the shape of my life,’ she says. ‘I wanted to come to London and break my mum’s PB and Scottish record and qualify for the Olympics. It felt within reach, so to then not make it to that start line was frustrating.’

As well as battling injury in the build-up to London, McColgan found herself battling the organisers. She was told she could not compete if she wore the logo of her sponsor, Science in Sport, on her vest as it was a rival of their official drinks partner, Lucozade. Seven months on, the row has still not been resolved.

‘There is no change on their stance,’ says McColgan. ‘You have to have a sponsor that is not a clash with one of their sponsors and, if they deem it to be a clash, you can’t race with that on your vest.’

Regardless of any contractual disputes, it is unlikely McColgan will race in the capital next April. Having initially said the marathon was Plan A for the Paris Olympics, injury has forced her to change tact.

‘Coming back from the injury, I think it’s looking like the 10,000m in Paris and then on to the marathon, somewhere like Berlin or Chicago towards the autumn,’ she says.

Providing she is fit, McColgan should be a medal contender at her fourth Games.

Her 10,000m British record of 30min 0.86sec is almost a minute and a half faster than the gold medal-winning time of Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay at this summer’s World Championships.

‘Ultimately I’d like to end my career with an Olympic or world medal,’ says McColgan. ‘If you asked me five years ago, I’d have probably said it is out of my grasp, but year after year you start to see it and believe it a bit more.’

Also giving McColgan reason to believe is the inspirational comeback of her British team-mate Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who returned from a ruptured Achilles tendon to win her second world heptathlon title in Budapest.

‘I got emotional watching her,’ says McColgan. ‘We had our first Olympics together in London and we’ve been to every Olympics together since. I know all of the injuries and ups and downs that she’s had.

‘It gives me a lot of faith and a lot of inspiration to know that an injury is not the be all and end all of your career. You can still come back from them.’

How would McColgan feel, then, if she was able to return from her rotten 2023 to earn a place on the podium in Paris in 2024?

‘I think that would be a fairy tale,’ she adds.

Eilish McColgan: Running in the Family will be on BBC iPlayer from Friday.