IF Laura Muir is feeling any negative effects through labouring from dusk until dawn with sick animals depending on her, then she was hiding it well in Kirkcaldy yesterday as the double European champion briefly emerged from her athletics hiatus to win the Scottish short course cross-country title for the third successive year.

Racing for the first time since finishing sixth over 5000 metres at August’s world championships in London, competition has taken a back seat as she completes her veterinary degree with a rigorous spell at the University of Glasgow’s animal hospital imposing the kind of schedule that is the antithesis of the regime required to maximise sporting excellence.

Needs must, the 24-year-old knows, and it will not be forever; but it was joyous, she admitted, to let loose after being cooped up for so long.

“It was strange finishing in London," Muir said. "I felt I had more still to prove. That was the last race of the season because I started university again a week later. So it was nice to be back racing again.”

There will be no more outings until the New Year and it seemed that Muir was releasing any trace of pent-up energy when she bolted clear on the opening lap of the 4km course before finishing in 12 minutes and 53 seconds, well clear of Steph Pennycook and with Morag MacLarty pipping the promising junior Anna MacFadyen to third.

Coming at the close of a week where her working hours approximated the 70 mark, this was light relief for Muir. But with March’s world indoor championships in Birmingham marked in the diary before she turns herself to the concurrent summer ambitions of graduation and the European Championships in Berlin, not even the gruelling endeavour of keeping all creatures great and small in prime condition has prohibited the Scot from keeping herself up to speed.

“Luckily I’ve been able to work around it. After night shifts, I’ve often had a rest day. I think I’ve only missed one planned run and that was because we had an emergency come in that didn’t finish until 11pm. I texted my coach and said, ‘I might need to skip this.’ It had been really tough but also very rewarding at the same time.”

Cameron Boyek rebounded from the injuries that wrecked his summer season to take the men’s title by four seconds from Lachlan Oates with teen tyro Sol Sweeney third. “I knew I was in good shape so I came here for the win,” Boyek admitted.

Meanwhile, Guy Learmonth will lodge an appeal this week to UK Athletics after hitting out at his exclusion from Lottery funding. The 25-year-old was one of the more controversial omissions from the 112-strong world-class performance grouping, despite reaching the world 800m semi-finals in London in August and taking national medals indoors and out.

The decision came exactly 12 months after he quit the sport’s main base in Loughborough to return home to the Borders where his training track is the footpath along the banks of the Tweed. And in a pointed rant on social media, Learmonth claimed the governing body is biased against athletes who don’t buy into their system. “If I was still in Loughborough, I wouldn’t be writing this,” he proclaimed. “That’s a fact. The lack of vision, corruption and nepotism is beyond me.”