Laura has turned muddle into medal
Coe says mature Muir has turned her career round after she started making right decisions
SEB COE has backed Scots track queen Laura Muir to become a medal magnet after her European Indoor Championships success.
The 23-year-old returned from Belgrade yesterday clutching two golds – her first senior medals – after victory in the 1500m and 3000m events.
It was the icing on the cake to her flurry of records throughout the winter.
And double Olympic winner Coe believes that finally learning how to turn talent into triumph could unlock the door to a string of titles for Muir.
He said: “She’s in that purple patch of her career that athletes get into and it strikes me that she is stepping out onto the track thinking she is not going to get beaten and most importantly the people in the field don’t think she is going to get beaten.
“She’s running with real poise and making the right decisions.”
That was a nod to the struggles Muir went through two years ago when poor showings at the Commonwealth Games and the World Indoor Championships prompted IAAF president Coe to step in and have a word with the trainee vet.
He revealed: “I remember she was at a pretty low ebb. I sat down and said to her: ‘you could not have chosen a tougher sport or tougher career to qualify in’. Doctors take five years to complete their studies, for vets it’s another two years.
“I told her she had to stick at this because nothing good in athletics happens overnight. If you trust your coach - and I suggest you do because I think he’s a good coach - then you will turn this around.
“I told her given my experience with the animals I’ve owned over the years I said she’d probably end up wealthier than all of us put together! “She’s just grown in maturity.” Coe believes Muir should be confident bagging another double when she goes for 1500m and 5000m glory at this summer’s World Championships in London.
Coe said: “It’s a pretty good moment for Laura to get into a purple patch.
“There’s clearly an incentive out there and you go into a World Championship year in a different vein, a different mentality to any other with the exception of an Olympics.
“The incentive is that it’s going to be on home soil.”
The stayaways from the event in Serbia – including in-form Scot Andy Butchart - missed a chance to break their medal ducks while others, including Eilish McColgan, got
their just rewards. Coe said: “Athletes want to finish their careers with medals. The fact that Eilish has picked up a bronze – her first championship medal – she will remember that on top of every personal best she’s ever broken. It’s the litmus test isn’t it?” Meanwhile, Muir’s coach Andy Young has confirmed plans are in place to pull off a golden double in London in August after the schedule was unveiled. He said: “The 1500m is her preferred event and she will be doing days one, two and four to compete for that. “The fifth and sixth days are ones she has off, then day seven is the heats of the 5k. There’s then another two-day break until the final. “That means Laura can focus 100 per cent on the 1500m – and then take on the 5k afterwards. “Hopefully it will be a bonus – it will be nice if it’s already a medal from the 1500m.”