There’s no anecdote that better highlights just how precocious a talent Megan Keith is than when the legendary American sprinter, Carl Lewis, was presenting her with a gold medal for becoming British Cross-Country champion, Keith wondered who was “this random American dude”.
It was quickly pointed out to Keith that it was, in fact, a superstar of athletics who was presenting the medals and not a complete unknown as she had suspected but her ignorance is forgivable considering she was only four years old when Lewis won his ninth and final Olympic gold medal in 1996.
The story is a pertinent reminder of just how quickly Keith, who only celebrated her 21stbirthday this year, has gone from a budding young talent to a GB internationalist on the track and a regular contender for major medals on the cross-country circuit.
2023, in particular, has been quite a year for Keith.
Having been traditionally known as a cross-country specialist, Keith used this summer to prove to everyone that she was far more than just that.
Her first notable achievement was becoming European U23 5000m champion before clocking her first-ever sub-15 minute attempt at the distance.
That was enough to earn her selection for the GB team for August’s World Championships in Budapest where she finished a creditable 14thin her 5000m heat.
Over the past month, however, Keith has been back on the more familiar and considerably more muddy ground of the cross-country season.
As is always the case with Keith, she lets her legs do the talking and already this winter, the Edinburgh-based Inverness native has made quite a statement with her performances.
In the past month, she’s picked-up two Cross-Country Series victories, the second of which saw her crowned British senior champion for the first time.
And so it’s hardly surprising that Keith goes into today’s European Cross-Country Championships, which take place in the Belgian city of Brussels, brimming with confidence.
“I’m really happy with the performances I’ve produced so far this winter – I’ve managed to keep my momentum from the summer going which has been great,” she says.
“I learnt a lot over the summer being on the European track circuit and going to the Worlds.
“I was trying to soak up as much as I possibly could and I’m hoping I can use that experience going forward.
“What was nice about the summer is that with track being so easy to judge where you are fitness-wise, I knew that I was strong and my confidence-levels are definitely higher now.”
For today’s European Championships, Keith will be joined in the 40-strong GB team by her fellow Scots, Eloise Walker, Lynn McKenna, Angus McMillan and Andrew McGill.
It’s Keith, though, whose cross-country results in recent seasons have been as consistent as they’ve been impressive, who has the spotlight upon her.
After becoming European under-20 champion in 2021, she won under-23 silver in 2022 in her first year in the older category.
Today, she goes into the under-23 race as heavy favourite for gold and while she insists she’s relatively untouched by the expectation upon her shoulders, Keith has little doubt in her mind what outcome she wants come the end of the day.
“I want to be competitive and I probably will be disappointed if I don’t do better than last year,” she says.
“I’ll run the way I always run in cross-country which is as hard as I possibly can and that makes it easier to stop myself thinking too much about the result. If I finish the race knowing I ran as hard as I can, I’ll be pretty happy but really, there’s only one outcome I want.
“It is a different feeling having attention on me - I’m trying not to think about it too much but I do also want to embrace it.
“Over the past few weeks, I’ve made it quite clear what kind of form I’m in so having done that, it’s quite difficult to go into the Europeans under the radar.
“I’m taking it as a compliment – the expectation is based on what people have seen so far rather than anything they think I could do in the future.”
Today’s European Championships will likely be Keith’s only opportunity for major championship silverware this winter; with the World Cross-Country Championships having been moved to the end of March, it’s too close to the track season for Keith to consider a tilt at it.
Having forced her way into GB’s track squad earlier this year, making her Olympic debut at Paris 2024 is now very much on Keith’s radar but the consequence of being immersed in the cross-country season means she’s wasting no energy getting caught up in the stresses and strains that can come with Olympic selection.
“I don’t think very far ahead at all - right now, I haven’t even planned out January never mind next summer,” she says.
“That’s the advantage of doing a cross-country season – I get so caught up in the excitement of what’s happening right now that it’s easy not to think about what could happen in seven or eight months’ time.”
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