Och aye the two
LAURA EYES SCOT DOUBLE
LAURA MUIR is hoping to kickstart a Super Scottish Saturday in her hometown of Glasgow.
Muir, the Olympic 1,500 metres silver medalist, lines up over the longer 3,000m this evening at the World Indoor Championships.
Just 25 minutes later, she is followed by fellow Scot Josh Kerr, who is looking to add the world indoor 3,000m title to the outdoor 1,500m gold he claimed last summer.
The Scottish duo have already proved they are in peak shape this indoor season.
Kerr (inset) broke the rarely-run world indoor two-mile record in February, at the same meet that saw Muir set a British record over the distance.
Should they repeat that success tonight, they would send Glasgow’s Emirates Arena crowd into raptures.
“It’s exciting,” said Muir, 30. “Hopefully I can get things going and see how he does.
“I’m glad I’m first because I hate sitting and watching other people wanting them to do well, and trying to keep focus when you’ve got the crowd going mental.
“So I’m glad I can spectate afterwards at the side of the track.” Muir grew up about an hour’s drive from Glasgow in Kinross, before moving to the city where she studied to be a vet.
She admits she would have happily skipped this event had it not been held in her home country.
“It’s such a huge opportunity as we’ve never had a global track championships in Scotland before,” she said.
“I didn’t think I would ever get this opportunity and I don’t know if I will again in the rest of my
career.
“There’s a really big emotional attachment to it because it is like home, essentially.
“But I think it’s just really important, as well, because I want to inspire the next generation and where better to do it than in Scotland on a track that I have trained at? That’s huge.”
Her gold-medal mission will not be easy in one of the strongest fields of the championships. Competing over double her specialist distance of 1,500m, she is ranked only fourth on personal bests and sixth this season.
“It’s hard doing an event at a global level that’s not my main event,” she added. “I’ll have the home crowd behind me and it would be amazing to get that global title.”