WHAT do Scotland’s male 1500m runners and Celtic have in common? They have all completed the triple treble.

For the third successive year, a trio of our middle-distance superstars recorded a one-two-three at the British trials this summer, a finish strong enough to rubber stamp the passports of Neil Gourley, Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman for Doha and the IAAF World Athletics Championships which get under way today.

Maybe we are just getting greedy - particularly with the formidable Timothy Cheriot of Kenya and the Ingebritsen family around - but we really would have a story on our hands if the same three men could monopolise the podium places when the medals are handed out almost at the conclusion of the entire global showpiece next Saturday.

“We can hope, we will give it a go!” Wightman told Herald and Times sport. “Whichever three Brits got taken over 1500m, the domestic strength is so good. And if we can get three Brits in the final, that is a quarter of the field, which means there is a lot higher chance that one of us will medal. One, two, three is the dream, isn’t it? Although it is going to be pretty hard to do that. I have been racing with Neil since the age of something like ten so for us to both end up in a worlds team together is something I don’t think either of us could have imagined when we were just kids. Josh has been just incredible the last few years too and he is just going to get better. I don’t think this is going to be a one off.”

Of these three Scottish pals who have made the grade for the global showpiece, Wightman has the most reason to feel fortunate to be there. Coming into the trials still feeling the after-effects of a recent stress fracture, he outran England’s Charlie Da’Vall Grace down the home straight to finish third behind Gourley and Kerr, the Scots currently blazing a trail out in the States. Wightman feared that wouldn’t be enough, considering Grice’s time of 3:30.62, recorded out in Monaco this year, is fully three seconds quicker than any other British man has achieved all year, and the fourth fastest by anyone in the world during 2019. “I always thought that if you run quicker, you make yourself pretty much impossible not to select,” said Wightman. “So when Charlie ran 3.30, in my head I was thinking ‘how can you not take a 3.30 guy’.

“I thought they might put me in the 800m, and Charlie in the 1500m, some kind of compromise maybe, but I am happy with the way it has turned out, even though I feel sorry for Charlie. I was with him recently, but I hope both of us can make it to the Olympics next year. It is just a horrible place to be in.”

Unlike the women’s schedule, which stymied any hopes Laura Muir might have had of doubling up by putting the 1500m and 5000m finals within half an hour of each other, the competition calendar actually would have allowed Wightman to consider doubling up in the 800m and 1500m as he did for Scotland at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. After words with his dad, and coach Geoff, it was he himself who ruled it out. “The way my dad looks at it - and I agree with him - is that I have to start getting medals over one distance first before concentrating on both of them,” he said.

Having spent time with Team GB acclimatising in nearby Dubai, Wightman is well aware how difficult the conditions will be in the Gulf state. With humidity even seeming to increase in the evenings, he is glad he is only out there running for four minutes – unlike the marathon guys like Callum Hawkins. “The hottest I’ve ever raced was out in Australia, and that was nowhere near as hot as this,” says Wightman. “It feels like you have walked into a heat chamber or a room which has all the radiators turned on. I hope everyone has done the right prep for it or there could be a lot of difficulties out in the roads.”

As usual, Jake can rely on his dad Geoff in the stadium commentary position. “He will be there, shouting away,” says Wightman. “He did my school sports day when I was younger, so he isn’t going to stop now. I don’t hear him mid-race, but it is nice to know he is there.”