Hawkhill Harrier is European golden girl

DUNDEE Hawkhill Harrier Laura Muir (right) admits she must now handle the pressure after double gold at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade.

The 23-year-old claimed wins in the 1,500 and 3,000 metres to cap a successful championships for Britain.

The squad won five golds, including 60 metres sprint titles for Richard Kilty and Asha Philip, four silvers and one bronze to finish second in the medal table.

Muir won her first two major titles after previous disappointment when she had been tipped to make an earlier breakthrough and, ahead of the World Championships in London in August, knows the heat will be on.

“You can’t go winning medals and breaking records and not go raising expectations,” said the athlete from Milnathort, after a British and championship record in the 1,500 metres on Saturday and championship record in the 3,000 metres on Sunday.

“I’ll take it all in my stride. I take it as support, not pressure, and I’ve shown I can deal with it.

“It all went pretty well. It was great to do so many races back to back. I think it probably showed that I can do lots of races back to back, so it’s looking promising for the double in London.

“It’s more spaced out which is nice. It won’t be quite so compact as what I’ve done the last couple of days.”

Team-mate and fellow Hawkhill Harrier Eilish McColgan claimed third as Muir won by over eight seconds ahead of Turkey’s Yasemin Can at the Kombank Arena.

Muir said: “I was still awake at 3am. I couldn’t sleep because I was buzzing from the race on Saturday.

“Halfway through the race I was thinking ‘I’m feeling tired’, and I was hoping she wasn’t going to ramp it up anymore. I managed to hang in there and knew I had the kick, so I just waited and then I went for it.”

Yesterday, Robbie Grabarz won men’s high jump silver with Lorraine Ugen second in the long jump and Shelayne Oskan-Clarke runner-up in the women’s 800 metres.

The women’s 4x400 metres relay squad of Eilidh Doyle, Laviai Nielsen, Philippa Lowe, and Mary Iheke also won silver.

That followed Kilty’s defence of his 60 metres title on Saturday and Andrew Pozzi’s win in the 60 metres hurdles on Friday, with Philip adding to the gold haul yesterday.

SIR Mo Farah says he is happy to be drug-tested “any time, anywhere” and for any of his historical samples to be reanalysed.

The British four-time Olympic champion has found himself back in the spotlight following fresh doping allegations against his coach Alberto Salazar in recent weeks.

American anti-doping investigators feel they have enough evidence to retest samples of athletes at the Nike Oregon Project, run by Salazar.