A photo secured yesterday overlooking San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge confirmed Laura Muir’s healthy lust to see the world. Certainly, she is not part of the cosseted brigade of sportspeople whose travel experience merely extends to airports, luxury hotels and the shuttles in between.
The 26-year-old craves the souvenirs of major championships but also the memories of exotic stopovers en route. Yet after making the pan-continental trip to northern California for today’s Prefontaine Classic, her passport is getting no hiatus.
The Scot will seek a third victory in fourth starts this summer in the 1500 metres at the lone American stop on the Diamond League circuit which has been displaced south from Oregon amid stadium renovations ahead of the 2021 world championships.
The opportunity to face Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon, and to showcase herself on behalf of her shoe sponsors, made the adventure irresistible. But it also affords the Scot and her coach Andy Young the leeway of a relatively short additional detour – to Tokyo, and the site of next year’s Olympics – where she will head tomorrow on a scouting mission.
“We want to get out and get a feel for the place and what the weather is like,” she said. “It’s a similar time of year that the Games is. So we’ll get out and train and see how I react to the conditions. We’re just hoping it gives us a little bit of insight or anything we can use. And see if we can plan the best possible.
“We might not get anything major at all beyond understanding the conditions. It might be nothing extreme. But having that familiarity, mentally, being somewhere that you’ve been before is less stressful, knowing where you’re going. It just puts you at ease.”
The British contingent at Stanford University also includes Dina Asher-Smith, who will attempt to maintain her own winning streak in the 200m while Caster Semenya’s legal victory over the IAAF allows South Africa’s world champion to return to the 800m. Muir’s event does not offer Diamond League points but it is yet another stepping stone on the long road towards the worlds in Doha in the autumn, and then Japan next summer.
“I want to win as many races as possible,” she said. “I really want to get that medal at the world championships. I’ve got the girls pushing me now. Even in training I’ve got that target on my back as well as in racing.”
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