Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIPS LAURA RUNS INTO A ROW
Muir claims British 800m title but rivals say she did not submit race entry on time
LAURA MUIR ran into a storm after being crowned British champion over 800m at Birmingham’s sun-kissed Alexander Stadium.
The poster girl of British athletics romped to victory and then signalled her intention to compete over the 800m and 1500m at next month’s European Championships.
But not before Scottish rival Lynsey Sharp claimed Muir had been allowed to submit her entry after the deadline.
Sharp said: “Games have been played all week by individuals and also by our governing body, which is meant to be unbiased.
“You can call me bitter, but I play by the rules and I came here prepared – based on what I knew the field was going to be – and that was different on Saturday morning.
“There’s a date by which you have to declare for a reason.
“Throughout the whole week we prepare for what we know our competitors are going to be.
“To throw something else in the mix overnight is playing a game.”
British Athletics insist Muir entered before last Monday’s deadline – and that her name had simply not been added to the online entry list.
A spokeswoman said: “British Athletics can confirm that no athlete entered in the women’s 800m has been granted late entry or showed favouritism in any manner in the lead up to this weekend’s championships.”
And Muir played down the controversy after crossing the line in 2min 1.22sec, ahead of Shelayna Oskan-clarke and Adelle Tracey.
“I was always going to run the 800m here,” she said. “That’s been in the plans for quite a few months and we accepted the entry over a week ago. It just didn’t update online.”
Lorraine Ugen was the star of the day, producing a leap of 7.05m to set a championship record in the women’s long jump.
Nethaneel Mitchellblake edged out Adam Gemili, his Britain’s world championship-winning sprint relay team-mate last summer, to take 200m gold in 20.24sec.