YOU know you have arrived when foreign visitors are required to pass you before they pass passport control. Not only is the giant image of the 25-year-old from Milnathort pretty much the first thing visitors to Glasgow Airport clap eyes on at international arrivals these days; all billboards outside Emirates Arena heap further pressure upon the slender shoulders of Muir to be the leading lady of her home European Indoor Athletics Championships this weekend. No wonder her fellow Kinross High School pupil Eilidh Doyle told her yesterday that she had no problems passing on poster girl duties from Glasgow 2014.

“We were laughing about it this morning because her poster is also outside the hotel,” said Doyle of last year’s double world indoor medallist. “She was reminding me of the big picture I had at Glasgow Airport and how she now has that poster. I said ‘well, I hope you got your picture taken in front of it’.”

The moral of the story is an imperative make the most of this moment in the sun, rather than to shrink into the shadows, and the good news is that Muir seems remarkably relaxed as the hours tick down to her historic bid to defend the continental crowns over 1500m and 3000m which she claimed in Belgrade two years ago.

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Not that here aren’t complications along the way. Only two hours this evening separate her 1500m heat from her 3000m final, while Konstanze Klosterhalfen of Germany is a worthy competitor. But you would have to travel far and wide yesterday to find someone brave enough to bet against her.

“It is hard dealing with that kind of pressure,” recalled Doyle of her experience at the Commonwealths four years back. “But Laura has competed at Worlds and Olympics, she has medalled at the world indoors. So this will be a comfortable arena for her. In fact, it will be a very comfortable arena considering it is where she trains each day. It is about really enjoying it, embracing it, but remembering all that is just white noise, it is about what goes on on the track. That is where Laura is so good.”

With nine Scots in a total GB and NI team of 49 for this event, at least the 25-year-old doesn’t have to look far for another Scottish accent. Not only will Eilish McColgan join her in tonight’s straight 3000m final with a bronze medal from Belgrade to defend – remarkably her practice laps at the Emirates Arena yesterday were her very first at the East End of Glasgow arena – Muir will have her 20-year-old training partner Jemma Reekie for company in the 1500m. Hopefully she will also be around for Sunday’s final too, assuming the emerging Scot can book her place there this evening.

It has been Reekie’s dubious privilege to attempt to keep up with Muir for the last three years, as part of the elite little training group they share under Andy Young. The slipstream has carried her all the way to the European championships as the reigning British 1500m British champ.

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“It is fun being under the radar,” said the 20-year-old, who has happily recovered from a recent bout of cold and flu symptoms. “I know at one point – hopefully – I’m going to be like Laura, that I’m going to be on billboards. So I am just enjoying surprising people, proving people wrong.”

From the moment three years ago that Muir introduced herself, this pair have been great friends – even if there is a nice contrast in their personalities. Until she gets a dog of her own, trained vet Muir fusses over the ones owned by Reekie in the family home in Beith. “We push each other so much,” says Reekie. “As soon as I get a little bit close to her, she is off again!

“We are very different in some ways but when you see us on the track we are both really determined, really committed, we will do everything we need to do,” she added. “That is nice, because we are good friends. She chats about veterinary stuff while I am just really into more sports stuff really! But I have two dogs as well and she comes to visit them. Hopefully

she is going to get one soon. We can share mine till then.”

Has Muir changed since then? Well, yes and no. Refreshingly, still the same engaging character off the track as she was before, Reekie simply speaks in awed terms about the amount of reps the 25-year-old can get through in training. It is intense training like this which allows her to make mincemeat of records like Kirsty Wade’s 31-year-old indoor British mile record the other week.

“Her reps are going up. She’s 25, 26 this year and is running faster than ever. She will do more laps than me because I’m 20, and there’s that five-year gap. I don’t want to peak at 20. I want to have a long career.

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“I’m quite bad for saying to Andy that I want to do this and that, do whatever Laura is doing. He has to tell me to slow down, that we’ve got a long time ahead of us.”

While Reekie’s recent illness saw her quarantined from the Emirates Arena for fear of passing the germs on, Doyle – who goes today in the

400m along with her countrywoman Zoey Clark – goes into these championships with her coach and husband Brian on the other side of the barricades.

He failed to get one of only four British coaches’ accreditations for the event and had to be content with a scramble to find a seat in the

stands, his input reduced to perhaps being able to offer a thumbs up or down like some Roman gladiator. At least Doyle’s former coach Malcolm Arnold has got a pass.

“It was a bit disappointing that he never got accreditation – although I understand why he didn’t get it – but you do want your coach there for it,” said Doyle. “He isn’t just my coach, he is my husband too so he is a good support unit. We did manage to get tickets for him, so he will be sitting in the crowd, with my parents. He can give me a thumbs up or something ... if I spot him!”

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But the final word must go to Reekie, who fully expects her training partner to retain the two golds which would see her career continue to take lift off ahead of the World Championships later this year and next year’s Olympics.

As for Reekie, her race will be to try to make the final, then see what happens next. “It would be amazing to get to the final,” said

Reekie. “And I’m hoping Laura wins, so whoever is on the podium will hear the GB national anthem. That would be really cool.”

“I really expect Laura to get the two golds,” she adds. "She is absolutely flying just now. I think she is going to put on a show."