Muir ‘in best shape of her life’ ahead of London challenge

Scot targets a podium place in 1500m today Training full-time helps with fine start to season

Laura Muir says she is in the form of her life ahead of the 1500metres at the London Anniversary Games today, when she hopes to erase the heartache of missing out on a podium finish two years ago.

A painful margin of seven hundredths of a second was enough to deny the Scot a medal at the 2017 World Championships in London, where she had to settle for fourth place.

But Muir has since established herself as a staple of women’s middle-distance running after defending her 1500m and 3,000m titles at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March.

Following her first full-time training season since graduating from the University of Glasgow in veterinary medicine, the 26-yearold is hoping to continue her upward trajectory as she targets a first global title in the event at September’s World Championships in Doha, the one medal which has so far eluded her.

“Before, my recovery was compromised quite a lot,” said Muir, who recorded her quickest 800m time at a non-diamond League event in Monaco last Friday. “I wasn’t getting that much sleep and I was rushed off my feet all the time. Since I’ve been qualified [as a vet] I’ve had that time to recover between training sessions and get away on training camps a lot more as well, to use the good weather.

“I feel like I’m probably PB shape. I feel like I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in. I ran an 800m PB last week, I certainly feel like I’m in my PB shape of 3-55. It’s just whether all the boxes on the day can be ticked and whether that kind of time can come off.

“But I’m really looking forward to going out there. It’s going to be a really competitive field, but hopefully we can run some fast times.”

Muir blamed a sluggish start for

‘Now I go into races relaxed. Before big championships, it’s how it would be for any other race’

not advancing further up the pecking order in Monaco, but, in retrospect, it is a small imperfection on what has otherwise been a stellar Diamond League season for her so far.

At the third meet in the series, in Stockholm in May, she cruised to victory in the 1500m, clocking 4min 5.39sec before running the second-fastest time of her career a week later in the Diamond League meet in Rome, where she was pipped to first place by world record-holder Genzebe Dibaba.

Muir has put her red-hot form down to her level-headed approach. “Before big championships, it’s just like how it would be before any other race,” she said. “I’ve got this mindset now where I know I’ll race better relaxed. I just go into races relaxed. I’ll say a couple of things over in my mind and line out what I want to do in the race and then I’ll go, like, whether I want to get out hard, get off the back.

“There’ll be three or four points that I’ll run over in my head before the gun goes. Just simple things that are important to do during the race and trying not to over-complicate it.

“I guess the 1500m is a little bit more difficult in the sense that there’s a higher chance of it not going to plan. I remember in Rome, I was meant to get out quite hard, but then I got tripped really badly and ended up right at the very back. I thought, ‘Right, well that changed instantly’.”

Patience has been a valuable tool in helping Muir to sharpen her act as one of the world’s best middledistance runners. She believes she is more tactically astute in the field, which has moulded her into an athlete unrecognisable from the one who watched her medal chances slip away on British soil two years ago.

“Since 2017, I think I’m a lot stronger now,” Muir said. “I feel like I’m in a lot better shape, speed and endurance-wise, than I was then. I think it’s taken a bit of time, racewise as well, just to catch up with tactics.

“I guess I started a little bit later on in the sport. Each year is getting better and last year at lots of the championships I was running well.”