MUIR SHOCK AT STUNNING RECORD WIN
LAURA MUIR admits she couldn’t believe her eyes when she clocked her record time with an 800 metres win at the Scottish Indoor Championship in Glasgow.
The 24-year-old double European gold medallist wrestled the national honour back from Lynsey Sharp with a winning run of 1:59.69 at the Emirates Arena.
But Muir – who’s juggling athletics with her 9-5 job as a trainee vet – revealed she shocked herself by running the quickest 800m in the world this year because she felt knackered even before the race began.
She said: “I am a bit surprised. Beforehand my legs were feeling a bit tired.
“I always have a habit of smashing training the week before I race.
“I trained well this week but I think I was a little bit tired from it. I knew the pace I had to do and that I had to work really hard for a couple of laps.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw the time was 1.59.”
Incredibly, Muir picked herself up off the track to pace training partner Jemma Reekie for all but the last two laps of the 1500m final less than 30 minutes later.
But the 19-year-old rising star came up just short of the World Indoor Championship qualifying mark in 4:15.69 despite winning by almost half a lap.
Reekie said: “I tired a bit but it was a six-second indoor personal best so I’m happy with that.”
Muir and Euro junior champ Reekie are now set to go head to head at next month’s British trials with the golden girl ruling out a switch to an 800-1500m double at the Worlds in Birmingham in March.
Muir said: “It is the classic middle distance combination but there are a lot of rounds. It is tough mentally doing two events.”
Record-breaker Muir wasn’t the only one smashing it in Glasgow as London 2017 silver medallist Zoey Clark set a Scottish Indoor 200m record of 23.58secs in her first outing in five months.
And the 21-year-old admits she’s now flinging everything at a bid for Gold Coast Commonwealth Games glory.
She said: “I have one race in Belgium and then the British Championships but everything is geared towards the Commonwealth Games.
“I want to get the speed going. World Indoors is an aim but it’s not the main aim. It’s all about the Gold Coast.”
Heather Paton equalled her own Scottish indoor record of 8.34secs to win the 60m hurdles.