Eilish McColgan says clean sport is 'probably not' achievable

McColgan is competing at the British Championships this weekend

Clean sport is "probably not" possible as some athletes will always be "corrupted", according to Scottish athlete Eilish McColgan.

The middle distance runner, 28, is preparing for the British Championships in Birmingham this weekend.

And having competed against retrospectively banned athletes, McColgan says cheats will always exist.

"The sad reality is people are always going to be corrupted by money," she said.

"Whether it's medals, fame, there's people that are going to be bad eggs in all walks of life.

"There are just girls who are more talented than me, who train harder, that are just genetically more gifted - I'm not naive to that. So I go in with an open mind that everyone's on an equal playing field but of course the reality is, that's not the case."

• McColgan responds to 'skinny' comments

• How to watch the British Athletics Championships on the BBC

The British Championships acts as qualifying for the World Championships in Doha in October, with McColgan having already secured a place in the 10,000m and looking to add the 5,000m to her schedule.

The Scot made headlines recently after responding to abuse on social media calling her "skinny" as she replied: "Go body shame elsewhere."

"I'm surprised at how much it just took off," the European silver medallist said. "I had a lot of people replying to it, a lot of people sharing with it and agreeing with it.

"It's nice to feel that it's obviously an issue other people are dealing with, it's not just elite athletes, it's across everyone."

McColgan says her comments were to promote a healthy attitude to body image among young girls.

"I don't want young girls to look at me and think I'm unnaturally reducing my food in order to be this size and I need to be this size to run fast," she added.

"We're so involved now with Love Island, with the Kardashians and these unrealistic body shapes and types. And people feel they need to have all this cosmetic surgery in order to strive to achieve that, because it's deemed the perfect body image.

"Young girls feel more confident looking like that than their own natural bodies and it's a shame, I can't believe we've got to that point."