Alnwick racer sixth as Muir misses record

LAURA Muir dismissed any disappointment after she missed out on breaking Zola Budd’s 32-year-old mile record.

The 24-year-old was second in the mile race at the Anniversary Games yesterday and fell just short of Budd’s British record.

She finished behind Kenya’s Hellen Obiri in four minutes and 18.03 seconds – a personal best for the distance – at the London Stadium. Alnwick’s Laura Weightman

(pictured below) came a respectable sixth, with a time of four minutes and 20.88 seconds.

Budd’s record, set in 1985, stands at four minutes and 17.57 seconds but Muir was content, especially after recovering from a stress fracture in her foot.

She said: “I’m disappointed not to get the record but I’m happy with the time. It’s still a PB for me.

“I just took it on and the legs were a bit tired in the last 100m but, considering the races I’ve put together in the last few days, I’m pretty happy.

“It’s hard – you have to physically push yourself as hard as you can. I wanted to be at the front and set the pace. I may have paid for it in the last 100m but I did the best I could.”

After Muir, Sir Mo Farah won the 3000m in one of his last races at the stadium where he won his first two Olympic gold medals in 2012.

Farah will retire from the track to focus on road racing after the World Championships in London.

He said: “I’ve been in this situation with the experience of 2012, it’s a different feeling.

“This is home, this is where my life changed and where I made my name. If I didn’t do it on this track I wouldn’t matter, would I?”

Earlier, race walker Tom Bosworth broke the 26-year-old world record in the mile after crossing the line in 5:31:08.

CJ Ujah won the men’s 100m sprint in 10.02 seconds, equaling his season’s best to produce a time which could take him to next month’s World Championships, and Chris O’Hara snatched the men’s 1500m race in 3:47.28.