DAIRY QUEEN OF THE TRACK
Laura Muir was milking cows during the 2012 Olympics, now she aims to be the cream of the crop in London
LAURA MUIR aims to go from milkmaid to gold top at the World Athletics Championships.
The last time the eyes of the track and field world focused on London the trainee vet was to be found milking cows in a Scottish dairy.
Five years on from those Olympics, which she watched in “awe”, Muir has the opportunity to succeed Jess Ennis-Hill as Britain’s golden girl.
She will not be favourite to win either the 1500m – which stages its heats tomorrow – or the 5,000m, which comes next week.
But she has shown enough this year for the world to know this is one young lady who won’t be pushed around inside the Olympic Stadium.
Not just with the two European Indoor titles she won in March, which made her only the second Briton after Colin Jackson to win two titles at the same Euro Indoor Champs.
But with her refusal to allow a spoilsport official to prevent her from celebrating the first of those gold medals with a lap of honour around the Belgrade track.
“People still ask me about that,” she said. “It’s one of those that’s going to stay with me for the rest of my career! But I think I’ll be OK in London. The crowd will have something to say about that if I don’t get around on a lap of honour.”
When Muir, 24, gets an idea in her head woe betide anyone who gets in her way.
Some questioned her decision to compete in two events, which require five races in nine days. They didn’t change her mind.
Others found fault with her all-or-nothing strategy in the 1500m at last summer’s Rio Olympics, chasing the pace when running her own race would have secured a medal. She didn’t bow to them either, instead dusting herself down and, on her very next outing in Paris, taking more than two seconds off the British record. Her time of 3:55.22 then is faster than anyone has run this year and confirms she has the potential to rock the world over the shorter distance. As do the other four British and two European records she has set since Rio. She might only be 5ft 4in yet the athlete who spent her first £150 of prize money on a cage for her pet rats is fearless. No surprise then that her favourite film is the true story of the champion American racehorse Seabiscuit. “Seabiscuit was small fry yet he came to win,” said Muir. Enough said. The world has been warned. Tomorrow: 1500m heats Saturday: 1500m semi-finals Monday: 1500m final Thursday: 5000m semi-finals Sunday: 5000m final
LAURA MUIR’S SCHEDULE AT THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS