Last-gasp agony for Muir in 1,500m final
LAURA Muir fell agonisingly short of a medal in the 1500 metres at the World Championships after finishing fourth in a thrilling sprint finish.
The 24-year-old could not hold on in the final 100m and missed out on a podium place by seventh hundredths of a second as Caster Semenya pipped her to bronze
Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon took gold in a time of four minutes 2.59 secs, with America’s Jenny Simpson clinching silver in 4:02.76. Muir came home in 4:02.97.
Muir was seventh in the 1500m at the Rio Olympics last year and was in third place just behind the leaders with 200m to go but faded to finish well behind Kenya’s Kipyegon.
She had qualified second in the semi-final, behind Olympic champion Kipyegon, and looked comfortable in the first part of her double bid but could not last the pace at the end.
But there was success for Britain’s 200m sprint trio as Danny Talbot, Zharnel Hughes and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake reached Wednesday’s semi-finals.
It came after the struggles of their 100m colleagues, where only Reece Prescod reached the final.
Talbot ran a personal best of 20.16s, level with Olympic champion Wayde van Niekerk in the third heat although Van Niekerk slowed considerably in the final 20 metres.
Talbot said: “I think I’m in the best shape of my life so I’m just trying to go with it. I’m very grateful to be in the position I am.
“It’s definitely the best season I’ve ever had and to be able to have that going into a home World Championships is something you can only dream of.
“It’s not over yet, I try and stay in the present as much as possible. My next focus is the semi-finals - I’ll try and win that then go from there.
“For me the only thing that’s important right now is getting the best recovery possible then I’ll take it from there.”
Mitchell-Blake ran 20.08s to win his heat after Canada’s Aaron Brown was disqualified and Hughes, selected ahead of Adam Gemili for the individual race, finished fourth in his heat in 20.43.
Yohan Blake and Sani Brown qualified comfortably but Van Niekerk, who won 400m Olympic gold in Rio, is the strong favourite for the title.
Talbot added: “He’s great. I grew up racing him in the juniors and I’ve known him for seven years. We’re good friends. To see someone like that do so well inspires you. I still want to beat him so we’ll see what happens.
“He’s a great guy, great athlete and great to be on the track with these guys, but at the same time you want to beat them. Hopefully I can do that.”
British Athletics captain Eilidh Doyle qualified for the 400m hurdles semi-final along with Meghan Beesley but Jess Turner missed out.
Doyle said: “It’s been nerve wracking getting out there – I just wanted to get the first round out of the way and get that secure qualification.
“I spent the last few days just watching everybody and it’s made me hungry to get out and have my own shot.”
Nathan Fox also failed to reach the men’s triple jump final with a best leap of 16.49m, well below the 17m qualifying mark, while Jack Green did not progress past the 800m semi-final.
Zoey Clark also bowed out at the semi-final stage in the women’s 400m.