Laura fifth but proud
IN the end it was all too much for Laura Muir, whose latest bid for a global medal ended two spots shy in fifth. There were simply too many injuries and one athlete who ran the sixth quickest 1500m time in history while towing an enormous cloud.
That being Sifan Hassan of Holland and that cloud being Alberto Salazar, her coach up until the weekend when he was launched out of the sport for being a drugs cheat.
She ran 3:51.95, which is the fastest ever run at a World Championships, and her gold completed an unprecedented double here of titles at 10,000m and 1500m. She has always denied any wrongdoing and pointed this week to joining the Nike Oregon Project after the period that was under investigation by the US AntiDoping Agency, but she will have to live with her choices and whatever they might mean for her public standing.
Muir’s time of 3:55.76 was only a fraction outside her personal best, and in her circumstances it was quite something.
The European champion missed six weeks of track running because of a calf injury in July and shortly before the race it was disclosed to the Mail on Sunday that she had also battled a knee injury last week and a stomach bug the week before.
To understand Hassan’s time, it is worth noting the five quicker are divided between Genzebe Dibaba, coached by the wanted doper Jama Aden, and four Chinese athletes in the Nineties.
Muir, who joined Hassan at the front at the bell but was burnt off in the final 250m, said: ‘There is a cloud — there is no avoiding that.’ Of her performance, she added: ‘To run 3:55, especially when I missed so much training, I am speechless but so proud of myself.’
After her victory Hassan said: ‘I am clean and I’m showing everyone how clean I am.’
Faith Kipyegon took silver and Gudaf Tsegay bronze.