ELL AND BACK TO JAMES
LAURA MUIR fired a warning to her World Championship rivals by unleashing a blistering final lap to win in London.
Muir, the European champion, was not expected to lose over 1500m at the Anniversary Games once World and Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon pulled out.
But few thought the Scot would destroy the field as she did, ahead of the Worlds this autumn – at the bell she exploded away with a 57.45secs final lap to win cosily in three minutes 58.25secs.
The strategy came as a surprise even to Muir, who was given her instructions by coach Andy Young only an hour before the race.
“The others probably expected her to go at 800,” he said. “But I told her to wait, then beat them in a sprint. I wanted her to show that she can do it either way.”
Muir has been in charge all year, making history at the European Indoors by retaining her JAMES ELLINGTON and Goldie Sayers made for a day of high emotion at the Olympic Stadium.
Competing for the first time since cheating death in a head-on road crash in 2017, Ellington (left) completed the men’s 100m in 10.93secs.
Sayers, Britain’s greatest female javelin thrower, fought back the tears as she was presented with the Olympic bronze medal she was cheated out of in Beijing 2008. Ellington, a two-time European relay champion, said: “That was the first time I have sprinted over 60m since my accident. Pretty much 99.9 per cent of people wrote me off and didn’t think I’d walk properly again let alone run.”
Ellington aims to compete in next year’s Tokyo Olympics.
Sayers, who has now retired, learned she had become an Olympic medallist as she drove down the M11 to meet her mum for coffee. “It’s been a long time coming,” she said.