MUIR THE MERRIER
Muir and Co on track for glory under Young
ACCORDING to Instagram, they’re the ‘Family Young’. Other options, however, are available. ‘Andy’s Army’, giggles Jemma Reekie as a possible alternative. Maybe even Laura Muir and her Running Mates. Call the band what you wish but one of the world’s finest cluster of middle-distance marauders is now tucked away in the leafy west end of Glasgow with grand plans to put their rivals in the shade.
The Boss — his title according to the Insta blurb — is Andy Young, the former Scotland international who has transformed himself from part-time coach with a day job at the local council into a guru with a growing reputation at home and abroad.
His association with Muir has brought massive benefits for both, including her five European titles and lucrative backing from Nike that’s allowed them to jet all over — including to today’s Prefontaine Classic in San Francisco that doubles as a showcase for the sponsored stars of the shoe company.
They’ve become the faces of this high-speed troop. ‘Andy will argue it’s him,’ Muir, 26, grins mischievously.
But while this all began as a discreet project at Glasgow University where Muir arrived as unheralded unknown six years ago, the tree has grown from humble roots into a forest of contenders.
There’s Reekie, formerly the European junior champion who next
week will shoot for an 800 and 1,500 metres double at the European Under-23 Championships in the Swedish city of Gavle before setting her sights on joining her fellow Scot at the grown-up world championships in Doha come the autumn. Add in Erin Wallace, prodigious triathlete and runner in one, who will venture to next month’s Euro juniors with a real medal shot after impressing at last weekend’s trials in Bedford. There’s also emerging prospect Kerry Macangus, who recently lapped up her first taste of a Diamond League meeting in Stockholm. And, more recently, the relatively exotic addition of Canadian star Gabriela Stafford, who will join Muir in the 1,500m in California in a sign of Young’s expanding reputation and the appeal of the foundations he has built from a blank slate.
‘I was in a decision-making period and a few different groups had approached me,’ Stafford, 23, reveals. ‘Laura’s group came up and we’re part of the same management agency, so I got in touch with Andy through my agent and it all spiralled from there.
‘It’s just another level up. I thrive in an environment where there are people better than me and that’s the biggest change from working with Laura. Being around someone who is the best in the world helps you elevate your own game.’
With a clutch of national records already captured this season, the Young effect looks transformative. Hard graft, limits pushed.
Yet as their photos from life on the road illustrate, there’s ample camaraderie thrown in on top with days off together to theme parks and a few sneaky pics of Young in daft mode to keep him on his toes.
‘It’s a serious group but also fun and low-key,’ Stafford confides. ‘That helps me with my own race nerves. We are like a little family.’ It’s all an antidote to UK Athletics’ longheld performance mantra that the quickest route to scripting British success stories is to compress their elite together at their base in Loughborough and have them drink from the Kool-Aid on site.
A real boon too for the sport in Scotland that’s riding high on a wave of home-grown heroes who no longer have to stray too far to excel.
‘It’s nice that a young athlete can see us all here working in Glasgow and think: “I could do that”,’ Muir points out. Young adds: ‘It’s good having the group with Kerry and Erin in there as well. They’re all feeding off each other.’
Three speedy showings already this summer has got Muir ready for her American outing where the leader of this pack and Stafford will face Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya and then depart on a recce to Tokyo to plot how to wrestle away her crown.
‘It’s great having the girls there and us all working together,’ declares Muir. ‘I think we’re all pushing each other on.’