ONE job accomplished. The greatest one to go. Laura Muir secured herself an invite into tomorrow night’s 1500m final in Rio with room to spare after finishing third in her semi-final late on Sunday night.
The recently-elevated British record holder was calm and collected as she followed Ethiopian title favourite Genzebe Dibaba and Dutch rival Sifan Hassan home rather than needlessly hunting them down.
The good news for Muir is that she believes there is plenty left in reserve.
“I just wanted to qualify for the final – you always speak about an Olympic final but it’s just an achievement to get there,” she said. “I’m really chuffed. I tried to do it as economically as I could save as much energy as possible. I knew I wanted to stay at the back at the start and stay out of harm’s way and then come through and be at the front before anything happened. I expected Hassan and Dibaba to be at the back and come through and I just followed them, so pretty much perfect.”
Yesterday was spent plotting with her coach Andy Young for a final that will test her to the limit. Fifth at last year’s world championships, Muir has improved hugely. Now she has one more leap to make.
“You don’t know what they’ll throw up in the final,” she said. “I’ll speak to my coach and talk tactics. My coach has always set targets for me and I keep on smashing them. He’s a pretty good person for that. I’m fulfilling everything he could have dreamed off and I’m going further.”
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