Emirates hero Laura defends her 3000m title

ATHLETICS

BY MARK WOODS LAURA MUIR scorched her rivals with a blistering late show to take 3000 metres gold on the opening night of the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow.

Just when it seemed the Scots star might miss out, she settled her titanic battle with German rival Konstanze Klosterhalfen by turning on the burners with one lap left to claim a championship record of 8:30.62 at the Emirates Arena.

Muir’s spirited defence of her title completes the first leg of a possible double double this weekend – with Brit team-mate Melissa Courtney holding on for bronze and Eilish McColgan coming seventh.

Muir, who also won her 1500m semi to set up her second shot at gold tomorrow, said: “It was tough. Konstanze had a great race and made it really hard. I was thinking, ‘jeez’.

“But I got through it. It’s so special competing against the best in front of this crowd.”

Katarina Johnson-Thompson scored her second Euro pentathlon gold but missed out on a world record despite a brave last push.

The Liverpudlian, 26, was on track for 5013 points with early efforts in the 60m hurdles and high jump before a PB of 13.15 points in the shot put.

KJT held a massive lead over her rivals in the morning but was 40cm short of her lifetime best in leaping only 6.33m in the long jump.

She went for broke in the closing 800m but came up short with a total of 4983 with team-mate Niamh Emerson, 20, snatching a shock silver.

Andy Butchart reckons getting the inside track from Mo Farah can help him storm to 3000m gold tonight.

The Dunblane dynamo, 27, beat his own Scottish record with 7.51.28 in his semi to come second to Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen and will be joined in the final by Chris O’Hare.

Butchart said: “He’s giving me hints on how to run races or people to watch out for. He’s very smart.”

Neil Gourley’s medal hopes in the 1500m got a huge boost when he won his semi after Jakob’s brother Filip was disqualified.

Guy Learmonth avoided any further damage to his broken finger or injured ribs as he eased into tonight’s 800m semis.

Eilidh Doyle missed out on the 400m final after coming fourth in the semis but she’ll get a shot at redemption along with Zoey Clark in tomorrow’s 4x400 relay.

But Jemma Reekie failed to join Muir in the 1500m final despite a PB of 4:13.44.

Meanwhile, wildcard Richard Kilty hopes to run a “season’s best in the heats” in his bid to complete a hat-trick of 60m golds tonight.