Muir: I couldn’t have done anything more
LAURA MUIR believes she is on course for the Olympic medal she craves in Tokyo despite coming fifth in Saturday’s 1500 metres final at the world championships in Doha. The 26-year-old Scot will fly home today after shaking off a compromised build-up that included a torn calf and an upset stomach to run the second-quickest time of her career of 3:55.76.
There was an extra gear missing, she admitted, when she entered the final lap behind eventual winner Sifan Hassan but saw her hopes of the podium disappear. However, the trajectory is still on track towards Japan next summer, Muir senses.
“I am proud of myself to run that sort of time off the training that I have done. I never thought I was in that sort of shape. So yes, to do that off that training gives me confidence to know that when 100 per cent – well, how fast can I go?
“A couple of months ago I didn’t know if I was going to be here, I didn’t know if I was going to get to the final. So to run 3:55 with three races in my legs, well, I’m speechless that that’s not on the podium. But I couldn’t have done anything more, I ran my heart out.”
The European champion voiced what many thought following Hassan’s extraordinary run to gold in the sixth-fastest time in history of 3:51.95 to complete an unprecedented 1500-10,000m double. Her second gold arrived just days after her coach Alberto Salazar was banned from the sport for doping violations. This race is now tainted, signalledMuir.“Ithinkthereisacloud.”
The Dutchwoman, who has never been charged with any offence, defended herself vigorously against allegations of guilt by association with Salazar who has been her mentor since 2016. I am innocent, she insisted. “This makes me so mad. I have been clear all my life. You cannot see my body. I have been such a good athlete since 2014. Now people start talking all this bulls**t.”
Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon ceded her title but took silver in 3:54.22 with Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia landing bronze. JAKE WIGHTMAN clenched his teeth, swung his arms and kicked his legs for all they were worth as the IAAF world championships concluded in Doha last night, the end in sight, a medal in the men’s 1,500 metres within tantalising reach. The 25-year-old has a nose for a podium. Leaving nothing on the track, he could not will quite enough. Fifth place in a time of 3:31.87 captured the Scottish record. Mixed emotions. Superlative, yet still not enough.
Maddeningly close though, from what became a race of two separative narratives. The brilliant Kenyan Timothy Cheruiyot took a wrecking ball to any hopes from the rest that he might prove fallible. Charging magnificently clear from the off, he claimed his expected gold in 3:29.26, an astonishing two seconds ahead of Algeria’s 2012 Olympic champion Taoufik Makhloufi with Marcin Lewandowski grabbing third.
Wightman sensed a slim chance to overhaul the Pole headed down the home straight. “I was just holding and hoping they were going to come back to me a tiny bit,” he admitted. “But it wasn’t enough. Someone like Marcin who has such finishing speed, to be able to finish that quick when the pace is like that, that’s what I hope to be able to do in the years to come. But it would have been a very big ask to do that here.”
He derived minor consolation from the Caledonian race within the race. His Edinburgh club-mate Josh Kerr was one place behind in a lifetime best of 3:32.52 with their Glaswegian cohort Neil Gourley eleventh in 3:37.30. Wightman is the seventhfastest Briton of all-time now and the highest finisher from these shores since Steve Cram and Steve Ovett were first and fourth in 1983.
“I just ran out of steam,” claimed Kerr who, at 21, remains an intensely exciting prospect. “I ran a very even and sensible race, exactly what I was planning on doing. But I got beaten by some very good runners. I’m disappointed. It’s a little bit bittersweet.
“I felt like a medal was up for grabs and I let that opportunity go. But I feel like I gave it my all. If you’d asked ‘do you want to do that at a championships? Do you think that will medal?’ I’d have said ‘hell, yeah’. I’m not disappointed in how I performed. I prepared very well for this competition and sixth is just what it was.”
Gourley could barely walk afterward, all available energy expended in his maiden major final. At 24, he will be back, aiming higher. “That’s the most I’ve ever been inside the hurt locker,” he confirmed. “I had every intention of going with it. I knew what Cheruiyot was going to do. Physically I committed to it maybe too hard.
“But I don’t regret that. I tried. I just wasn’t strong enough. I need to get better. I need to get stronger. Otherwise, I’m not going to be able to be effective in a final in the future. Mentally I was ready but physically, I wasn’t where I needed. I’m still developing. But I’ll continue to do so.”