World Championships chance 'validating for Wallace

World Athletics Championship

Dates: 13-21 September Venue: National Stadium, Tokyo Coverage: Watch on BBC One, iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app

Erin Wallace says having the chance to compete at the World Athletics Championships in Japan is "really validating" after being an unused reserve for last summer's Olympics.

Wallace, 25, will represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the women's 1500m in Tokyo, starting in the heats on Saturday morning.

The Glaswegian will be competing at a global outdoor event for the first time, a scratch she came agonisingly close to itching in Paris last year.

"It is a really big deal," she told BBC Scotland. "I have been so close for so many years now.

"Last year, I was official reserve for the 800m at the Olympics, which was obviously really good but also felt like it was reinforcing that I'd still not made an outdoor senior world team, so I am just really glad to actually be here."

Wallace can perhaps count herself unlucky she is striving to make her mark during what she describes as a "crazy era" for Scottish and UK middle distance running.

On the women's side, fellow Scots Laura Muir and Jemma Reekie are among those continuing to shine at the very highest level.

And Wallace is also part of a training group which includes Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson and Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Georgia Hunter-Bell.

While in the men's 1500m, three GB & NI athletes are Scots - Josh Kerr, Jake Wightman and Neil Gourley.

"It is pretty crazy, because across the 1500m [male and female] there are seven people and five of them are Scottish - that's crazy," she said.

"Making it on to the team is just so difficult. The past few years I would probably have been on the team if I was from a country that wasn't so stacked.

"Over the last few years, I have hit the qualifying standards but it's just not good enough within the UK.

"It is really great to push yourself but sometimes I am like, 'this is just making it so much more difficult than it has to be'."

Despite achieving the World Championship qualifying time in Budapest last month, Wallace's place was far from assured given the domestic depth in the 1500m.

Her cause was helped after Hunter-Bell opted to compete solely in the 800m, rather than doubling up in Tokyo.

"I am probably going in ranked about 30-35th, so there is not really much I could do that would be an under-performance," Wallace added.

"Anything is probably going to be quite good so there is really no pressure on me, and nobody is looking at me, so I am just going to make the most of it."