Laura is crowned the Queen of Belgrade
BRITAIN’S Laura Muir struck gold in the 1500m at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Belgrade last night.
The 23-year-old Scot won her first major senior title in four minutes 2.39 seconds, a new Championship and British record.
Germany’s Konstanze Klosterhalfen took silver, while Poland’s Sofia Ennaoui finished third.
Fellow Briton Sarah McDonald finished in sixth place in a time of four minutes 13.67 seconds.
Muir led the pack from the start and stretched out in the final two laps as she was put under pressure by Klosterhalfen.
“I just wanted to run a quick race. I never envisaged breaking the British record, it’s brilliant,” Muir said.
“The past couple of years, medals have just slipped away. I’m relieved to get one now.”
Asha Philip also won her heat in the women’s 60 metres during the morning session but now must wait until this afternoon to compete for a shot at the final.
Philip won in 7.25 seconds, the fifth fastest time, and is hunting a first senior individual medal after success in the relays.
The 26-year-old, who won bronze in the 4x100 metres relay at the Rio Olympics, said: “I saw the German girl (Alexandra Burghardt) went full tilt in heat one, so I thought ‘Okay, I don’t want to kill myself out there’, but obviously I knew I wanted to win the heat, so I just pushed on.
“I knew she (Germany’s Lisa Mayer, who finished second) was coming for me but I got out well. There are still things to work on – maybe I relaxed a little – but now it’s about trying to qualify for the final.”
Lorraine Ugen and Jazmin Sawyers qualified for today’s long jump final, with Ugen passing the automatic standard of 6.60m with her first leap of 6.80m.
Ugen said: “I’m very happy – that’s probably the easiest 6.80m I’ve ever jumped in my life. It felt really comfortable and I think there is more in the tank for tomorrow. I know that I’ll have to jump something outrageous to win, but that’s the aim, and I’ll come out firing.”
Robbie Grabarz, who won London 2012 bronze, made it through to the high jump final with team-mate Allan Smith as the pair finished joint seventh in qualifying after jumping 2.25 metres. But Chris Kandu missed out.