Laura Muir insists she is still serving her apprenticeship on the track but the 20-year-old is already comfortably surpassing acknowledged experts.
Duelling with Jenny Meadows, the former world medallist, as the 800 metres final of the UK Indoor Championships neared its conclusion last night, the Glasgow University student simply kicked and let her opposition watch her heels.
The victory was comprehensive, enough to seal her place in the Great Britain & Northern Ireland team for next month's world indoor championships in Poland. It is a measure of Muir's maturity that, despite her modest claims, she is emerging as a talent of genuine class.
"I was prepared for whatever pace it was and had tactics in mind," she revealed. "It was just a case of executing them. I'm still not all that experienced in the 800m. I only really changed to it at the end of last season. But it's nice to have the confidence to get things tactically precise."
If Meadows wished to make a point that her demotion out of the Lottery-funded classes was premature, then she came up short by fading to fourth. With reigning European champion Lynsey Sharp yet to return to the fray, Muir will head to Sopot as the undisputed British No.1 and deservedly so.
It will be another challenge to meet. "I think there are only two rounds and there are only six spots in the final so it's really hard," she said. "If I perform well in my heat, then race it as tactically well as I can I'll be happy but I'd like to get to the final. It'll be hard with so few people in the final though."
Muir was the sole Scottish victor over the two days, with five silvers and two bronzes representing both achievement and disappointment among the recipients. Chris O'Hare was unimpressed by a second place in the 1500m which means he will have to wait one more week to have his ticket to Poland punched.
The Scot refused to blame a cold for the manner in which he was outmanoeuvred by Lee Emanuel in the 1500m. The American-based hopeful, one of four Scots in the final, hinted that his present approach might require a gentle tweak.
"It's a wasted opportunity," he stated. "I always just try and make the best of every opportunity I'm blessed with [but] I didn't do that here and that's disappointing for me and everyone who's watching and supported me. You've got to get back to working hard. I didn't really raise off my training too much for this race. Maybe that was a factor."
Eilidh Child, the defending champion, was hyper-critical of the tactics that left her a lowly fourth in the 400m while Guy Learmonth was similarly downbeat despite claiming silver in the 800m. "This was just terrible," was the analysis of the Borderer, who will now need to chase the world indoor qualifying mark in Birmingham next weekend. "It won't happen again."
Among the successes were a Scottish indoor record of 21.25 seconds for Ryan Oswald in coming second in the 200m; Jo Moultrie's second place in the 3000m; Allan Smith's new best of 2.24m to come third in the high jump; and shot putter Kirsty Yates securing the Commonwealth qualifying standard with a third place.
Jayne Nisbet had established a new Scottish indoor high jump best of 1.87m on Saturday but the 25-year-old from Edinburgh had to bow to heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson who claimed a new UK record of 1.96m. The Liverpudlian then returned yesterday to win the long jump with a leap of 6.75m to illustrate her improvement.
"My coach wanted to wrap me up in cotton wool and make sure I don't get injured so I'm over the moon with that," she beamed, and should she nail down her place at the world indoors in the Netherlands this week, expectations will be high. "It gives me great confidence. Even if I can't get to that standard I know I can get close to it and that's what it's about in heptathlon: being consistent."
Elsewhere, Jax Thoirs set a new Scottish indoor pole vault record of 5.50m in New Mexico while Matt Gillespie won the Boston Valentine mile in 3:58.48 to move closer to Commonwealth contention.
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