LAURA Muir yesterday got a sneak preview of the medals she hopes to get her hands on for real at next month’s European Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow.
The 25-year-old, the reigning continental champion indoors over both 1500m and 3000m, gave her seal of approval to the Glasgow School of Art-designed gongs which she hopes to take possession of in just over a fortnight’s time.
Although the schedule for doubling up in both events is rather problematic, Muir announced at the weekend that she has designs on taking two gold medals from her home games, part of a Scottish contingent for the event which could hit double figures. Apart from anything else, Muir said yesterday that she is still driven by the memory of falling during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in this city and failing to make the 1500m final.
“It’s so exciting,” Muir told BBC Scotland. “I missed out on a medal at Glasgow 2014 and I was so gutted. I never thought I’d have the chance to compete at a major championship in Scotland again, so to have this championship here on essentially my home track is just so big for me.
“This is my first time coming into a major championship as defending champion,” she added. “If I could do the ‘double double’, that would be so special. And to do it in this stadium, on home soil, where I’ve got lots of friends and family coming, it would be so special.”
Muir is certainly in form, having claimed the British 3000m title last week in Birmingham and even breaking the Scottish record over 800m a couple of weeks previously. She goes again this Saturday in a high-class top-of-the-bill mile at the Muller Grand Prix in Birmingham, after which the selection window for the European Indoors formally closes and the final selection decisions are made.
While a number of Scottish athletes must perform on Saturday to rubber stamp their tickets for Glasgow, Muir is already sure to be joined at the Emirates Arena by her friend and training partner Jemma Reekie, who claimed the British title last weekend.
“To be setting personal bests and breaking Scottish records indoors is fantastic at any point in time, but for it to be a month ahead of the European Indoors in Glasgow is great,” said Muir.
Meanwhile, a raft of star names will spend the Saturday prior to the European Indoors running around Callendar Park in Falkirk for the Lindsays National XC event. The 26th edition of the joint men’s and women’s championships has attracted a record entry, with 2458 names put forward to be on the start line in an event which is thought to be the biggest participation national championship event in Scottish sport.
For now, a diverse start list includes Olympians Steph Twell, Freya Ross, Derek Hawkins and Andy Butchart – although the latter may prioritise his preparations for the European Indoors if and when his selection is confirmed this week –Glasgow 2014 marathon runner Ross Houston, Paralympian Derek Rae, Team Scotland triathletes Marc Austin and Grant Sheldon and GB ultra runners James Stewart, Marco Consani and Kyle Greig.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here