A HOME GROAN HERO

McConnell: Hampden hurt has helped Muir

LEE McCONNELL believes Hampden heartbreak five years ago and a growing sense of maturity will allow Laura Muir to cope with being the face of Scottish athletics.

Middle-distance specialist Muir won an unprecedented double double at the European Indoors in Glasgow this month as she successfully defended her 1500m and 3000m titles in fine style on her home track at the Emirates Arena.

The pressure was intense on the adopted Glaswegian – the 25-year-old has lived in the city for almost eight years – as the home favourite, event Ambassador and poster girl for the host GB and NI team.

Muir now insists she regards raised expectations as support rather than pressure and has her own high hopes for the IAAF World Champs in Doha this autumn and then the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020. And McConnell, who qualified for the Olympics three times, feels Laura can take the strain.

She said: “I’m really impressed with the way Laura is handling the spotlight. She is delivering big performances on the track, and medals, and off the track she is coping with all the hype.

“Laura looks confident now and that comes over in the media interviews. She has a good head on her shoulders. She’s sensible, is committed and knows what she wants and needs to do to merit the attention.

“It is clear to me she can cope with the nerves and pressure that come with being a favourite.”

McConnell should know. For 10 years or so she was in many ways the face of athletics in Scotland, shortly before social media created even more profile.

“You learn from it over time,” said the 40-year-old. “If your face is on posters, in newspapers and on websites, then you have to get used to that. There are knocks along the way – there is a focus that comes on you even when you don’t do well and you would maybe rather it didn’t.

“Laura has had some knocks and she has grown from that. Arguably, these knocks are helping her deliver the performances now. She has not made the same mistakes again.

“The Commonwealth Games in 2014 were painful for her. So then Glasgow 2019 became huge for her for obvious reasons – the Emirates Arena is where she comes every week to put in the training sessions – and all the talk about defending two titles.

“But she put that one to bed at the Emirates. Emphatically.”

With Chris O’Hare’s silver in the men’s 3000m final plus silvers for Zoey Clark and Eilidh Doyle in the women’s 4x400m, four Scots came home with five medals. The tally of nine selected was a best-ever representation on a British team at the European Indoors.

McConnell said: “It’s brilliant to have nine athletes competing for GB and NI at a European Indoors – it’s quite a number if you think about it within the overall team size. When I was competing it was nothing like that!”

McConnell’s habit for picking up medals hasn’t deserted her. Even in retirement. With the sport keen to try to right wrongs accountable to drug cheats of the past an “upgrade” came her way from the 2010 Euros.

GB and NI were elevated from bronze to silver with Russia, the winners in Barcelona, now erased from the record books.

“You want to get the medals you deserve at the time,” said McConnell, who was joined in that team by Nicola Sanders, Marilyn Okora and Perri Shakes-Drayton.

“It’s the medals in these performances that make you grow as an athlete; that make you motivated for the following winter and it gives you confidence for the next year.

‘ Your confidence is knocked when you aren’t getting the results you hoped for and expected. Yet, in fact, you are delivering but someone else is cheating to finish ahead of you.

“Having said that, to get a presentation in Glasgow at a venue where I trained for the latter part of my career – it was a nice moment, with my family there. The acknowledgement is appreciated.”

Lee’s interview is in the latest edition of PB magazine, issued this week to 13,000 members of scottishathletics. She was one of 15 athletes admitted to the scottishathletics Hall of Fame last November.

Arguably, these knocks are helping Laura deliver the performances now LEE McCONNELL