‘SCRAPPY’ ROME RACE SEES MUIR TAKE THIRD

Dundee Hawkhill Harrier Laura Muir looks to be edging back towards her best after coming third in the women’s 1,500m at last night’s Golden Gala meeting in Rome.

The Olympic silver medallist rebounded from being bumped twice in the early stages to clock 4:04.93 to finish behind Ethiopian duo Hirut Meshesha and Axumawit Embaye.

It was a step forward for the Scot in her penultimate tuneup for this month’s World Championship trials in Manchester.

And although Muir could not ultimately live with the pace of in-form Meshesha, who repeated her victory at the previous Diamond League stop in Rabat, she rebounded confidently from her disappointing 11th place in Oregon two weeks ago.

She said: “The race was bit messy. I think that nobody quite wanted to take it on, and the pace was kind of going up and down. It was scrappy, probably the scrappiest 1,500 I have run for a while.

“That is the nature of 1,500 metre running, but being on that field, this was a solid run. I would like to run a little bit quicker, but the nature of the race was it was not a fast one today. I know it is in the legs.”

Beth Dobbin was ninth in the women’s 200m in the Italian capital as Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-herah sustained a rare defeat.

The Fifer, who turned 28 this week, ran 23.36 secs with fellow Brit Dinah Asher-smith third as she gears up for the defence of her world title. But Thompsonherah was beaten out by Jamaican compatriot Shericka Jackson, who won in 21.91 secs.

● Fife AC’S Jenny Selman won the 800m at the PTS meeting in Slovakia in 2:03.43.

“The conditions were far from ideal but I’m chuffed to take the win in an international field,” the 31-year-old said.