Golden girl Muir sparks storm over ‘late’ entry
ABITTER row erupted at the British Athletics Championships in Birmingham yesterday, with rivals and a coach lashing out at Laura Muir’s inclusion in the 800metres amid claims that she had missed the entry deadline.
Muir was only listed to contest the 1500m, but to the shock of the 800m field she lined up instead for the heats of the shorter event on Saturday, and won the final yesterday.
The dispute centres on the allegation that the golden girl of British athletics missed the June 25 deadline to enter, with Muir’s name not appearing publicly on the 800m start list until Saturday.
A formal protest was issued shortly before yesterday’s final to the track referee at the Alexander Stadium by former european indoor champion, Matt Yates, who coaches Muir’s 800m rival, Revee walcott-nolan.
In a separate email to the referee, seen by Sportsmail, Yates made the extraordinary claim that British Athletics official Ian Hodge had admitted to him in a telephone call on Friday that Muir had missed the deadline and only entered for the 800m and 1500m on Friday evening.
In a further allegation, Yates wrote: ‘Mr Hodge also confirmed that he was pushed to enter Laura Muir by neil Black, despite explaining to him that the deadline had passed.’ Black is the performance director of British Athletics.
Last night, the national governing body denied all the claims, insisting that Muir (right) had in fact entered for the distance at 6.08pm on June 24, at the same time as the 1500m, and that a technical glitch prevented the 800m entry from appearing on the extranet used by her rivals. They also denied to
Sportsmail that Hodge had told Yates that Muir missed the deadline, and rubbished the allegation that she was added under the advice of Black.
In the 800m final, Muir, the double european indoor champion, launched her attack with a lap to race and went on to win in 2min 01.22sec, claiming one of two automatic spots for the european Championships in Berlin next month. defending champion Shelayna Oskan-Clarke was second, with 2012 european champion Lynsey Sharp in fifth and in danger of missing out on the third discretionary pick for the team. Sharp said: ‘ Games have been played all week by individuals and also by our governing body, which is meant to be unbiased. ‘It’s disappointing. You can call me bitter but I play by the rules and I came here prepared based on what I knew the field was going to be and that was different on Saturday morning. ‘There was a list of accepted athletes and that changed late on Friday night. ‘Throughout the whole week we prepare for what we know our competitors are going to be. To throw something else in the mix overnight is playing a game. It wasn’t fair, is all I can say.’ walcott-nolan, who finished sixth, said: ‘I think if the rules are there they should be stuck to. If it was me, that wouldn’t have been allowed. It is a bit unfair but you have to just get on with it.’ Muir, who ultimately didn’t run the 1500m but can be expected to get selected for Berlin, maintained she had entered in time. She said: ‘we accepted the entry for the 800m over a week ago. It just didn’t update online. It’s always been in our minds to do the 800m. I think some of them maybe knew. ‘ I’m european lead in both 800 and 1500m, so I don’t know if it’s a huge surprise for me to do the 800. I’m a strong contender in that event.’ The outcome of Yates’s protest will be determined this week. A spokesperson for the governing body said: ‘British Athletics can confirm that no athlete entered in the women’s 800m has been granted late entry or showed favouritism in any manner in the lead-up to this weekend’s championships. ‘we have data that shows the time and date of all athletes’ entry confirmations, with all competing at this weekend’s championships submitting their online forms on or before the closing date of Monday June 25.’ Meanwhile, nathaneel MitchellBlake won the men’s 200m in 20.24sec from Adam Gemili, and Lorraine Ugen broke the championship record to win the women’s long jump with a leap of 7.05m.