Heading into the 2025 season, Sarah Tait had one single goal; to make it to the highest level of American collegiate sport, the NCAA Championships.
Eight months into 2025 and the steeplechaser has achieved that, and far more, with this year having turned into something of a dream season for the 24-year-old from Edinburgh.
Having relocated to the US almost two years ago to study and train at the University of West Virginia, Tait’s 2024 was, in her words, something of a disappointment in terms of performances.
But she’s made up for it in 2025 having not only fulfilled her goal of running the NCAAs, but also winning her first senior GB vest at the European Team Championships and, perhaps most notably, becoming the Scottish 3000m steeplechase record holder.
Such a successful few months has, she admits, been a welcome boost having endured the challenges of last year.
“In 2024, I didn't show what I was capable of and I did have some real disappointments,” she says.
“Every athlete has setbacks, though and sometimes you need them because it motivates you to be better.
“At the start of 2025, I badly wanted to make NCAAs having missed it last year and so everything was geared towards that.
“I went into this season thinking I possibly could break the Scottish record and I was running a lot of steeplechases but none were particularly quick because in the NCAA system, it’s more about results than times. I was getting frustrated because I knew I was capable of running faster. My coach kept telling me to be patient, but patience is probably not my strongest quality. But I'm so glad he was right."It’s Tait’s Scottish record, set State-side, that’s garnered most attention in her home country.
The previous record was held by none other than Eilish McColgan, who set it back in 2013 and Tait didn’t only break McColgan’s record, she smashed it by a whopping seven seconds, with the Lasswade athlete clocking 9 minutes 27.80 seconds in the NCAA Finals, in which she finished in fourth place.
Bettering McColgan’s mark was, admits Tait, quite a moment, and felt all the sweeter given the support and encouragement McColgan has given her younger compatriot in recent years, including the Dundonian inviting Tait to join her “Give Back To Track” initiative.
And having the backing of one of Scotland’s greatest athletes has, admits Tait, been a significant boost to her self-belief.
"Eilish has supported me for quite some time and she said a while ago she thought I would be the one to break her record. So it's pretty special to have finally done it,” says Tait.
“She's always been so helpful and I've really been picking her brain recently - it’s amazing to be able to do that.
“It means a lot to have broken her record. When I first got on her Giving Back to Track initiative, Eilish was saying, ‘this is Sarah Tate and she's going to break my Scottish record’ so it’s been amazing to know she really believes in me.”
Tait will line up at the UK Athletics Championships this weekend safe in the knowledge that she’s in the form of her life.
She’s currently ranked second in the UK (behind Englishwoman Elise Thorner) and so heads into this weekend unsurprisingly targeting a podium spot and, ideally, the top step of the podium. However, with this UK Championships doubling-up as the World Championships trials, Tait also has potential selection for the GB team in the back of her mind. With the qualification standard for the World Championships nine seconds faster than her current Scottish record, she knows she’ll need the run of her life to get close to booking a seat on the plane to Tokyo but the Scot has slashed 22 seconds from her previous best this year alone so significant drops in time aren’t an entirely foreign concept for Tait. However, she’s aware that the best way to get close to World Championships selection is to focus entirely on her performance and hope that a fast time will follow.
“The World Championships standard is a bit of a jump for me but I don't think it's unachievable,” she says.
“It just depends how the race is run as to whether it's achievable this weekend so my main goal for the British Champs is a top two finish.
“If I get the Worlds qualifying time or if I don't get the time, it doesn't actually take anything away from how good my season's been so it's a nice position to be able to focus purely on running well.
“What college sport in America really does is teach you how to race well and so I'm pretty confident in my racing ability now and hopefully that helps me this weekend.”
