Guy Learmonth’s French revolution – Athletics Weekly

After rethinking his decision to retire and refusing to give up despite repeated injuries, Guy Learmonth using his Montpellier base to give himself one last shot, writes Mark Woods.

The long road to what Guy Learmonth hopes will end with a run to redemption this coming summer began not in his native Scottish Borders but across the ocean in France.

Neither did it take place on the sun-kissed south coast by the Mediterranean Sea where he has lived and trained for the last 16 months. Instead, it commenced on one of the far-flung territories which still form an integral part of his adopted nation – Gallic by design but very distinct in their outlook.

Guadeloupe, in the middle of the Caribbean, nestles almost 7000 kilometres and an eight-hour flight from Paris with a following wind. The family of Learmonth’s girlfriend, Olympic 800m finalist Renelle Lamote, hail from this remote but idyllic cluster of islands.

In the wake of a track campaign where both had to navigate the choppy waters of injury, they flew long-distance last autumn to regroup and restart towards 2026.

“It’s a beautiful part of the world,” declares the 33-year-old, a four-time UK indoor champion over 800m. “But it became a bit of a training camp. It just kick-started things with two weeks of easy running, and then slowly progressed into just some harder stuff. So I came back to Montpellier in much better shape than I was in 2024. And this time around, I’m not injured. Fingers crossed it stays that way.”

Twice a sixth-place finisher at European Indoor Championships, Learmonth had loudly signalled his intention to take his leave from athletics when his all-in quest to finally land an Olympic debut at Paris 2024 fell well short.

He took an extended break, cheerleading as his partner finished fifth at her home Games. There was latitude to relax and unwind but also to think deeply about whether this was really the finish line. “I felt like three months was a good amount of time for me to not make any rash decisions. But I knew after that I needed to make a change.

“Speaking to my family, they were like: ‘Come back home.’ I was like: ‘No, I can’t do it. I can’t run around the streets again. If I’m going to do it, I need to make a clean slate with everything: a completely new life, new training, new set-up.’”

One more go. Splitting from his Australian-based coach Justin Rinaldi, Learmonth relocated to join Lamote in Montpellier, where he turned to her mentor Bruno Gajer to engineer a reboot. Romance bloomed further. 

“It was a bit of a gamble because we hadn’t been together that long and we went from just recently dating to moving in together,” he laughs. “But it was the best move of my life.”

There was a contrasting response from his body, though. Injury. Then another. And repeat. More misfortune than he could handle, or deserved.

“I had a hamstring tear just before the season,” recounts Learmonth. “Shortly after I arrived, I tore my calf in the first few weeks of training. Then, with the same leg, I had a problem with the Achilles, which turned into tendinopathy.”

The structural weakness didn’t just halt his training in its tracks. “It was just on fire for months. I would struggle to walk at times.” Autumn became winter and he was still kicking his heels. There was a rebound for six weeks then a nerve issue that pinched from his quad to his hip.

Gajer, formerly coach to Katarina Johnson-Thompson, kept him patient through yet more rehab. With the World Championships in Tokyo on the horizon and the qualification deadline looming large, there was an urgency to step back competitively on the track. 

“Bruno said: ‘I know you’ve not run in a long time but we need to get you somewhere,’” recalls Learmonth. “It was a lot of cross-training. I kept myself as fit as I could. Bruno said: ‘We’re running out of time if you want to have a season.’ So we took a bit of a risk. It was very hard, the first three or four weeks, when I was really struggling with training.

“I just persevered a bit and then, just as things were starting to click, I tore my hamstring, a seven-centimetre tear. And that really was the summer wiped out.”

Again, the inclination was to call it quits, to move on and hobble away.

Lamote had been struggling too but made it – just – to Japan. She arrived without the race sharpness to progress beyond the semi-finals, however. Learmonth crammed in a couple of races to reactivate his Power of 10. Then both retreated to the sunshine to lick their wounds and take stock.

Now, knockbacks permitting, Learmonth goes again. For what he is more assured in calling a final year. The intention is to open up on native soil at this month’s EAP meeting in Glasgow and then evaluate whether the World Indoor Championships in Torun in March is a viable target.

The signs, cautiously, feel positive so far. “We’ve changed a lot of the training around,” he says. “Bruno has made some big changes to the whole flow of the week. I’m in a good place. And it’s just how we manage it moving forward.”

Few would begrudge him a valedictory final fling at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. To take the applause and bow out with grace. Even now, his competitive streak is too strong to simply aim to show up.

“I’d love to get back in a British team as well,” he underlines. “I don’t want to just get the national kit or anything. I want to be contesting for every team.”

The journey back to the start has had juddering bumps and bends which have left Learmonth dizzy. All he asks for is a clean sprint down the home straight. “I really went through everything, all the emotions and all the highs and lows,” he adds. “I’m utterly at peace with everything, all the stuff on the track. But there’s a lot of unfinished business, and I really hope I can achieve something good.”