Eilish McColgan's mother and coach Liz says comments on social media about her daughter's body shape are "demeaning and abusive.”

Commonwealth 10,000m champion Eilish received dozens of messages about her composition after posting a video of herself training on a treadmill in preparation for next month’s London Marathon.

Several questioned whether the four-time Olympian and multiple national record holder had an eating disorder and was getting enough calories.

And former Olympic 10,000m silver medallist Liz hit back in a post on , saying: "We come in all shapes and sizes, they obviously do not understand that being an elite runner brings lower body fat but being an idiot and not fully understanding that your body needs to be fueled properly by eating or your body will not perform especially for marathons."

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Liz said her daughter, 34, was "strong enough" to shrug off the negative comments but was worried about the impact such comments could have on younger athletes.

"Stop the jealousy and abuse of women athletes online by posting ridiculous and stupid comments as above," she added.

"My concern as a parent is not for Eilish as she is of a strong enough character to deal with these people my concern is for other kids, athletes that are not so strong of character to deal with demeaning and abusive comments on their appearance."

Highlighting some replies in a subsequent post, Eilish wrote: "Some people have no comprehension of how much you have to fuel your body to do this type of training. Bunch of clowns."

She also replied to several who had commented under her original post with a number of followers offering her support.

McColgan, who missed most of 2024 because of a knee injury, will make her long-awaited debut in London in late April having twice previously pulled out of London.

The Scot also recently spoke of her disappointment at being cut from National Lottery funding for the next Olympic cycle.

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