GLASGOW 2019 PULLOUT
Your essential guide to the athletics showpiece at the Emirates Arena
YOU know you have arrived when foreign visitors are required to pass you before they pass passport control. Not only is the giant image of the 25-year-old from Milnathort pretty much the first thing visitors to Glasgow Airport clap eyes on at international arrivals these days; all billboards outside Emirates Arena heap further pressure upon the slender shoulders of Muir to be the leading lady of her home European Indoor Athletics Championships this weekend. No wonder her fellow Kinross High School pupil Eilidh Doyle told her yesterday that she had no problems passing on poster girl duties from Glasgow 2014. “We were laughing about it this morning because her poster is also outside the hotel,” said Doyle of last year’s double world indoor medallist. “She was reminding me of the big picture I had at Glasgow Airport and how she now has that poster. I said ‘well, I hope you got your picture taken in front of it’.” The moral of the story is an imperative – make the most of this moment in the sun, rather than to shrink into the shadows, and the good news is that Muir seems remarkably relaxed as the hours tick down to her historic bid to defend the continental crowns over 1500m and 3000m which she claimed in Belgrade two years ago. Not that here aren’t complications along the way. Only two hours this evening separate her 1500m heat from her 3000m final, while Konstanze Klosterhalfen of Germany is a worthy competitor. However, you would have to travel far and wide yesterday to find someone brave enough to bet against her. “It is hard dealing with that kind of pressure,” recalled Doyle of her experience at the Commonwealths four years back. “But Laura has competed at Worlds and Olympics, she has medalled at the world indoors. So this will be a comfortable arena for her. In fact, it will be a very comfortable arena considering it is where she trains each day. It is about really enjoying it, embracing it, but remembering all that is just white noise, it is about what goes on on the track. That is where Laura is so good.” With nine Scots in a total GB and NI team of 49 for this event, at least the 25-year-old doesn’t have to look far for another Scottish accent. Not only will Eilish McColgan join her in tonight’s straight 3000m final with a bronze medal from Belgrade to defend – remarkably her practice laps