Eilish McColgan is aiming to break her mum’s personal best when she makes a long-awaited marathon debut but admits: “I’m absolutely bricking it.” Four-time Olympian Eilish has legendary mum Liz’s mark of 2:26:52 in her sights despite the final miles being a “complete unknown” because she has not gone past 21 in training. The Scot was a late withdrawal from the race in 2023 and her training has not mirrored the high volume approach taken by most rivals. And Eilish says she simply wants to cross the finish line with “no mishaps.” She added: “We’ve never got anywhere near 26 (miles), so what happens after 20 miles? I don’t know, but there’s 55,000 other people on the start line all thinking the exact same thing. "I obviously have my mum's PB in the back of my mind. There's part of me that would love to break that. It's the last of her records that I haven't broken. Then there's the Scottish record (Steph Twell’s 2:26:40). I've got nothing set in stone. They are loose goals and, if I have a good day, it will happen." But there appears little chance of her matching Liz’s 1996 race win, with Olympic champion Sifan Hassan set to renew a feisty rivalry with Tigst Assefa, the second-fastest woman of all time. Dutch maverick Hassan, who won on her debut in London two years ago, and Assefa barged shoulders when turning for home in Paris last summer before the former kicked to win. Before her previous outing in London, Hassan cried before the start, stopped twice to stretch a sore left hip and almost collided with a motorbike when veering right to collect water from a hydration station. “London will always be a great memory in my career that I can never forget about, but I don’t want any drama,” she said. “Around 11-13km I had some pain issues, everybody told me not to run and I thought ‘oh no, this has happened’. I started stretching, I started running a few minutes and then I got close. “I remember that for the last 5km I was with the leaders and I was already celebrating because I was so grateful to be with them. It felt like I was watching some drama for two hours. “I’m never going to do better than two years ago. I hope I do. With the marathon I get nervous and a bit scared. It’s not like a 1500m – three minutes and you’re done. You have to go for two hours. The marathon taught me that I have patience – I didn’t know that I had so much patience. But every marathon is totally different.” Other British contenders include Rose Harvey, who ran the Olympics with a broken leg, and Charlotte Purdue.