Neil Gourley finds inspiration in winning Merrie Mile

Neil Gourley knew he had company on his final sprint … and not just from his pursuers.

Gourley was on his way to Hawaii to compete in Saturday’s Kalakaua Merrie Mile when he learned of the death of Jim Taylor, an ardent supporter and prominent figure in the rugby community back home in Scotland.

So when Gourley found himself at the front of a tight pack in the final stretch of the event’s elite competition, Taylor’s memory fueled his surge through the finish line alongside Queen’s Beach.

“He was with me today,” Gourley said. “I was thinking about it the whole last straight. How he’d be following along and waiting to see the result today.”

Many of the close to 2,200 entrants who ran the Waikiki course earlier in the morning stuck around to watch Gourley, a former All-American at Virginia Tech, edge the pack of professionals to win the elite race in the sixth Merrie Mile, the kickoff event of the Honolulu Marathon’s 50th anniversary weekend.

Moments after the award ceremony, Gourley had already decided what to do with his $4,000 first prize. He plans to donate his earnings to the Hearts and Balls Charitable Trust, a foundation Taylor had championed athletes dealing with catastrophic injuries. Taylor was paralyzed in 1978 when he suffered a broken neck in a rugby scrum.

“He’s always been a huge supporter of mine. It was quite tough this week actually, so this one was absolutely for him,” Gourley said.

In his Merrie Mile debut, Gourley crossed the finish line with a time of 3 minutes, 56.01 seconds and his final kick was just enough to fend off former Oregon standout Sam Prakel (3:56.32) and U.S. high school 1,500-meter record holder Hobbs Kessler (3:56.97) of Ann Arbor, Mich.

Gourley’s win capped a calendar year in which he placed sixth in the 1,500 meters in the World Indoor Championships and eighth in the Commonwealth Games and European Championships.

“I could be at home (in Glasgow) for Christmas in the wind and the rain and the cold,” said Gourley, who also plans to visit Kauai and Maui during his stay in the islands. “This is a welcome change.”

Matthew Centrowitz, the 2016 Olympic gold medalist and another Oregon alum, came in ninth at 4:03.54 in his first event in his comeback from knee surgery.

The Merrie Mile’s elite race returned for the first time since 2019. The gender challenge began with the women getting a 29-second head start on the men’s field from the start line on Monsarrat Avenue. Gourley moved ahead of the tight pack with about 100 meters left on the return leg down Kalakaua Avenue and managed to fend off the high-powered field.

“It’s great and it’s terrifying at the same time,” Gourley said of the final stretch. “I try not to look behind you because that’s only going to slow you down, So I was just focusing on holding my form and finishing as has hard as I could. I was just making sure the blinders were on and not worrying about who was behind me.”

Katie Snowden of England was the first female finisher, and 11th overall, at 4:27.29 followed by Nikki Hiltz at 4:27.43.

“It’s top level … some serious world class credentials,” Gourley said of the field. “So although it’s fun, I was taking it seriously and everything I normally do for race preparation was definitely in place today, because the level was so high that I needed to be at my best to win.”

The Honolulu Marathon will celebrate its 50th anniversary today. The race starts at 5 a.m. on Ala Moana Boulevard with the finish again at Kapiolani Park.