“I’m just glad Tokyo wasn’t cancelled but was put back. Hopefully, it can go ahead in 2021”
Among the slew of sporting events thrown into disarray by Covid this year it is the postponement of the Olympics which has caused most disruption.
Training and development are built around peaking at the end of a four-year cycle, so when the 2020 Tokyo Games were pushed back to 2021 there was much anguish.
For Laura Muir, a genuine medal prospect, it was a case of years of planning and preparation being tossed out the window. Muir, a trained vet, had put the rest of her life on the backburner as she chased the Olympic dream.
“It was hard because I had set everything on hold really to focus on Olympics this year,” she explained. “My whole life was revolving around that goal, to be honest. I had no other plans. “When that went there was that sinking feeling of ‘Oh, what now?’
“Then we had the Europeans still on just for a while and then they were cancelled, not even postponed. It was gutting because the Olympics only come around once every four years and it was something I was really looking to perform well at.
“At the same time, around March, I could see the way Covid-19 was developing around the world and I wasn’t going to be surprised by a postponement. I’m just glad it wasn’t cancelled but was put back to next year. Hopefully, it can go ahead in 2021 as is now planned.”
Despite the disruption, 27 year old Muir still managed to produce some outstanding performances in the truncated athletics season.
She delivered three sub-four minute runs over 1500 metres, including the world lead time of 3min 57:40sec which secured victory in a top-class field in Berlin last month. That race was her fifth win in a row. In the midst of it, she also set a new British 1000m record. But Muir didn’t have it all her own way. A few days after Berlin, Jemma Reekieb eat her in the 800 mat the Diamond League meeting in Rome. The pair’s achievements this season were recognised by Scottish Athletics last weekend when they shared the 4J Studios Performer of Year title with another middle distance runner, Jake Wightman, at the governing body’s annual awards ceremony which was held virtually via Youtube.
For Muir, who had won the Athlete of Year title outright in 2015, 2016 and 2018, the threeway tie was the right result.
“It was nice to share the title,” she said. “I think some years you have a pretty good idea of who might be the outstanding contender for Athlete of the Year. So I was watching it and thinking it might be Jemma or it might be Jake so then when it was announced as ‘jointly...’, I just thought ‘that’s a really nice and fair decision’.”
With Tokyo looming, Muir is uncertain about her winter programme and will take time to work out a plan with longtime mentor Andy Young, who was named Performance Coach of the Year at the Scottish Athletics awards and also coaches Reekie.
“Putting any plans in place for the winter or the months ahead is so difficult,” said Muir. “I’ ve resumed training and hope to get in a strong block now. Whether that is here, or abroad, I don’t know – when and where are a bit up in the air in terms of a foreign camp. We will have to see how things go.”