LAURA Muir delivered a devastating demonstration of cross country running to lead GB & NI to victory in yesterday's mixed 4x100m relay - the day after she had given her team-mates a beginners' guide in the Scottish dialect they could expect from the Edinburgh crowd. A storming third leg run from Neil Gourley actually meant the British 1500m and new 5000m indoor record holder trailed her training partner Jemma Reekie as the last leg of this race began, but the GB & NI captain extended her young friend and countrywoman no charity at all as she blasted away to clinch the Stewart Cup from the USA by seven seconds. She clearly takes her duties as skipper seriously, part of which included providing a glossary of Scottish phrases. Her accomplices yesterday were James Bowness, Charlene Thomas and James West while Reekie led a Scotland A side which also featured Jake Wightman and Mhairi Hendry to a creditable third.
"We have been training hard together so I knew I had to put in the boot in from the start!" said Muir, who broke Liz McColgan's 25-year UK mark for the indoor 5000m in Glasgow last week. "I just wanted to go out there and run as hard as I can. I think the legs were a little bit heavy, you would expect that. But I have been fortunate to win every time I have done the relay so I wanted to come home with the win again today. As captain as well, it is part of my duties for the team.
"There was quite a Scottish theme to my speech - there were lots of southerners there so I gave them a few pointers about what might get shouted out. I think some of them got it, but I wanted to give a homely feel to it, because it means a lot to be captain. I just told them things that the crowd might shout out, like "go on yourself hen" or "gie it laldy", a few words of encouragement they might shout out so they don't get confused."
Muir, who has been out training with Reekie in South Africa, now travels back out there on Tuesday to continue her preparations for the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade in March. The World Championships follow in London in August.
"She always goes out really fast so I always knew she would be right on me from the start," said the 18-year-old Reekie, who runs out of the Kilbarchan club like Callum Hawkins. "It was a really good experience and I am very glad to get a point from Scotland for it. Being over in South Africa with Laura is really good, training wise, running wise and just seeing how she lives her life. We get on really well also, we have good fun."
Beth Potter came in 14th and Steph Twell 16th in the women's 6k race, a distance behind 2016 European Cross Country champion Yasemin Can, the Kenyan athlete who runs under the Turkish flag.
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