The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Muir chases second medal as McColgan left ‘frustrated’
Night of differing fortunes for Dundee Hawkhill athletes at the World Indoors
Less than 24 hours after taking the 3,000m bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham Milnathort’s Laura Muir qualified for the 1,500m final placing second in her semifinal heat.
On a night made all the more memorable after British pentathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson won her first global medal, the Milnathort runner finished second in the first heat in a time of 4:06.54 seconds, just behind 3,000m gold medallist, Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba.
The Dundee Hawkhill Harrier, who had to take a taxi from Scotland to Birmingham after the weather caused chaos, is searching for her second world medal.
Muir, whose final gets under way tonight at 8.39pm. said: “That was good I obviously wanted to get that top two spot and that was a tough heat with Dibaba in it but I got the job done so I’m really happy with it.
“Today I’ve been eating, seeing my physio and just relaxing as much as possible. I had the little mint chocolate from my hotel room last night and that was my ‘little treat’ but no, I did the same as always in preparation.”
There was further disappointment for Muir’s Dundee Hawkhill colleague Eilish McColgan after she finished sixth in heat two, with her time of 4:13.32 keeping her out of the qualifying places.
McColgan, who finished 10th in the 3,000m final on Thursday, said: “It is frustrating because training has been going better than ever.
“Today was very difficult to get my head around why in races I just don’t feel very good.
“Since I have come home (from warm weather training) training has been OK but I haven’t been able to do very much of it because I was sick and then I had trials and then I had this. You taper down anyway and I thought I would be good coming into this but to have two difficult races is a bit of a knock.
“I can’t do anything now – I just have to get back into training and build towards Commonwealth Games – that is the next big goal and I have a month to get myself right. Hopefully things go up from here.”
Kinross athlete Eilidh Doyle crossed the finish line in third in her 400m semifinal but, following the disqualification of Swiss athlete Lia Sprunger, was elevated to second in 52.15 seconds
The Pitreavie athlete now goes into today’s final timed for 8.05pm.
Doyle said: “It was always going to be hard, those girls are ranked second and third in the world so it was only top two that qualified.
“I tried to get in amongst it and got a bit cut up; it would have be nicer to run a smooth race and run a PB but it’s 400m indoors and that’s what happens.
“We didn’t target World indoors this year so I can’t be too disappointed.
“I made it here and you want to make the finals but I’ll take this forwards to outdoors. I think we’ve got a good chance in the 4x400m relay – again it’s all about who gets it tactically right. It’s very different again to the outdoor 4x4 so I will see what happens.”
Inverness athlete Zoey Clarke finished second in her heat, clocking 52.63, to qualify for the final.