LAURA Muir has no medals but no regrets either. The 23-year-old from Kinross, one of the Sunday Herald’s Six to Follow over the past 12 months, went into the Olympics in the form of her life, her build-up including breaking Kelly Holmes’ British record over 1500m that had stood for 12 years. On the back of a fifth place finish at last year’s world championships, there was a burgeoning feeling that a medal in Rio wasn’t beyond her capabilities.
Alas, it did not turn out that way. After comfortably booking her place in the final, Muir took the bold decision to stay with two of the pre-race favourites, Genzeze Dibaba and Faith Kipyegon, when they made a burst for it with just under two laps to go. From an opening that had trundled along at snail’s pace, it quickly metamorphosed into a very fast finish indeed. Muir simply ran out of steam in the final lap, the pain visibly etched across her face as Kipyegon and Dibaba sprinted away to claim gold and silver respectively. Three others also moved in front, leaving the young Scot to settle for seventh.
If her initial reaction had been one of frustration and disappointment, that would mellow after watching the footage again. Neither she nor her coach Andy Young could pinpoint a moment where Muir had faltered in her approach. If they ran it all over again this week, she insists she wouldn’t change a thing.
“I was a bit upset at the time when I finished the race but very quickly I became content with how I ran the race,” she said. “If you were to ask me now would I run it any other way given another chance I would still say ‘no’ as this was what I wanted to do.
“It was just unfortunate that they put that really hard third lap in and that was probably the only tactical situation that would kill me off. I wasn’t that surprised by the slow start as I had kind of expected that. But when she [Dibaba] went with 700m to go and I went with it I didn’t feel how fast it was at the time. I was just concentrated on racing. It was only with a couple of hundred metres to go I realised we had gone very, very fast! But I did all I could. I wanted to go for it, so I did. So, no regrets really.
“I’ve gone back and watched it a couple of times again. And I’ve been really pleased with how I positioned myself. I analysed it quite critically to see if I could maybe have done things differently. But Andy and I both watched it and felt I had done everything perfectly that I wanted to do. It was just one of those things. Faith running 1:57 [over last two laps] would have placed her fourth in the 800m final – so when you’re up against that there’s probably not much more you can do.”
Muir now has the full set of international appearances but nothing concrete to show for her efforts. She is naturally impatient but remains confident in her ability to atone at future events.
“I feel very privileged that I’ve now competed in every major championships; the worlds, Europeans, Olympics and Commonwealths. And I’ve made finals in a lot of them, too. Now I’ve done the full set I can hopefully start getting those medals. Every athlete wants that success right away and the thing I find frustrating is that a lot of the girls I am racing against and beating have won medals.
“It feels like everyone has won something and I’ve not. But I’ve just been unfortunate that I’ve been against very strong fields in some races and other times I’ve been a bit tired when perhaps it could have been slightly easier. But it will come someday I’m sure. I’ll get a medal eventually.”
In the aftermath of her final in Rio, Muir admitted she had “doubts” over whether everyone in the race was clean. She admitted it was “difficult to say” whether there could yet be repercussions.
“You just have to focus on yourself. With stuff like that, you don’t want to get too bogged down in it. You just have to try as hard as you can and hope you can beat them next time. It’s difficult to say for sure if there is more to come from this one. All I know is that I’m 100 per cent clean. We’ll just have to wait to see.”
There has been no post-Olympics break for the 23-year-old who was competed in the Diamond League in Paris last night before heading to Zurich for the final 1500m in the series this week. Among her considerations over the winter will be whether to step up to 5000m, perhaps even before the world championships in London next summer.
“Andy was hinting at me going up the way which is ever so slightly scary. So you might see a 5K next year or the year after. We do a lot of endurance sessions on the track and the 5K ones I’ve been smashing pretty well. We’ll put in a lot of work over the winter and see where that takes us.”
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