LAURA Muir returned to Glasgow Airport on Sunday evening with two new global medals in her possession. While it is her own hard graft, discipline and determination that has earned them, it could equally be said that her coach Andy Young deserves one for the six and a half years of painstaking coaching and preparation which has helped turn this talented runner from one of the top 25 in Britain at her age group to one of the top two or three in the world of any age. Not to mention the UK Athletics taxi driver who delivered her to the start line in one piece after a six-and-a-half hour cab ride across the frozen country on Wednesday night.

While Muir locked on to challenges ahead – first things first, she was back at her final year veterinary studies yesterday morning at 9am – Young reflected on a weekend which turned in an instant from every coach’s worse nightmare to a perfect weekend where his athlete showed excellent tactical maturity to come of age on the world stage.

“Colds and flu, now THAT is the coach’s worst nightmare,” said Young. “With it being down in Birmingham, we were always going to find a way, even if it involved trudging through the snow. But it was not ideal preparation, I will give you that.

“I was never that stressed that we wouldn’t get there, I was just worried it might be 3 in the morning or the day of the race. Six hours in a taxi isn’t ideal prep, but at least we still there the night before and can get a lie in the next day!

“It was a chauffeur-style driver, who was very serious about it,” he recalled. “About halfway down, we stopped for some food and I told him to put the radio on or something, you’ll go nuts. But he couldn’t get it to work so we decided it was best he stayed totally focused on the road!”

As for the races themselves, things didn’t run exactly to plan as she battled Genzebe Dibaba and Sifan Hassan, but Young purred about Muir’s awareness in the hurly burly. “There wasn’t really much wrong with either tactical race,” he said. “The first one [the 3000m] went very much as we expected, she just need to be a wee bit wider in those last few metres. The 1500m didn’t quite go as expected but the last half of the race did. So there were a few things which could have thrown her out but Laura made good quick decisions. And was in a good place to strike in that final lap.”

Perhaps the most exciting thing of all about Muir’s career, though, is the fact it is only getting started. Now that she has started winning global medals, there is the hope she may never stop. Once the final exams are out the way, Young has promised a fun summer of 800m and 1500m running on the circuit, before battling Hassan for gold again at the European Championships in Berlin in August. The Worlds await in Qatar in 2019 before all roads lead to Tokyo for the Olympics in 2020.

“She joined the group in September 2011 – so that is seven years – but it is still only in its infancy,” said Young, who timed Muir’s last 1000m just 0.3 outside Maria Mutola’s record for that distance. “It seems like Laura has been around forever because quite often there is cross country, indoor and outdoor, she wins all the races on BBC so you forget she is still only 24. But there is plenty more to come. I have promised her a summer of 800m and 1500m, that will maybe be a bit more fun. Just get her enjoying racing because it has been quite intense with a home Commonwealth Games in 2014, the 2015 World Championships, Olympics 2016, World Championships 2017, then obviously this World Indoors in 2018. Everything has had to be tailored to perfection so it will be nice to have a summer which is slightly more relaxed. But the big one she and everyone else has got their eye on is the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020. That is what the excitement will be.”

For Young, Hassan's reaction towards Dibaba on that 1500m podium reflected the widespread unease about the legendary Ethiopian ever since her controversial coach Jama Aden was arrested last June on doping charges. “Sifan Hassan’s opinion of Dibaba kind of summed it up," he said. "Especially after all the controversy, there is a lot of mistrust there.”

Muir wastes little time in small talk with the Etiopian either but she is not the type to bemoan the challenges pitted against her or rest on her laurels.

"It can be difficult but I think I've always said that no matter who's on the start line, I'll race against them," said Muir. "The reason I'm in this sport is because I enjoy it and nobody is going to stop me from enjoying it. 

“That is the Indoors box ticked,” she told Herald Sport. “Now it is outdoors and hopefully the Europeans sets me up for the season. I think if I won the Europeans that would be really great, to get a European title, although certainly the competition you could argue is slightly tougher at the worlds. I hope I can go there, get another medal, and hopefully a gold one this time.”