With steely determination, a brave heart and a stunning turn of speed, Kinross athlete Laura Muir outkicked world-class opposition to win a place in the women’s 800m world championship semi-finals.
Muir finished third in a new personal best of 2:00.80 to secure automatic qualification from her heat. And it was some ask for the 20-year-old to advance.
Seven of the eight girls in the line-up had run faster this season, and qualification looked beyond the Dundee Hawkhill Harrier for much of the race.
She languished in last place as the leading group took the bell in 57.02 and was still dangerously detached on the final bend. Yet, as others tied up, Muir used all the width of the home straight to overtake runner after runner and claim the vital qualifying place.
“I am just so shocked, but really pleased,” she said at trackside.
“I knew it would go off quick and I thought I would have to run my own race and rely on my strong finish.”
But her chances of qualification looked slim well into the second and final lap of the race. It took the Scottish runner nearly 600 of the 800 metre distance to go from eighth to seventh.
“Well at that point I thought, ‘Yes, at least I’m not going to be last!’ But down the home straight I felt really good and I could see third place in front of me and just decided to go and get it.
“I thought we might be the slower heat and I didn’t want to risk the fastest losers’ slots. So I just went for it really.”
The Glasgow University vet student was the only athlete of the 16 semi-finalists to record a personal best.
“My previous best of two minutes (2:00.86) was run pretty much on 1500m training, so since I found out my selection, my training has changed towards the 800m, and that has helped my speed quite a bit,” she said.
Muir, a product of Dunfermline and West Fife Athletics Club near her home town of Milnathort, knows that her next outing in the Luzhniki Stadium will have to last no more than two minutes.
“Definitely. All the heats have been run in two minutes, and the competition is as hard as it’s been for a long, long while. It’s going to be a lot faster tomorrow.
“I think a PB will have to be on the cards again. So no pressure there!”
The man responsible for getting Muir into the shape of her life is her coach Andy Young. As he put it yesterday, “She’s got a bit of pace about her!”
He said, “It was the heat of death, so we talked about sitting back…wait, wait, wait…then picking them off on the back straight, stepping up the gears and coming through. But to be honest, there were so many quick girls there that we were hoping for a fastest loser’s spot!
“I think the semis will be interesting,” added Young. “When Laura gets the look in her eye, she tends to just go for it!”
Muir will be joined in the 800m semi-finals by Marilyn Okuro of Shaftsbury Barnet, who recorded a season’s best of 1:59.43 in progressing from the first heat.
But there was heartbreak for emerging talent Jessica Judd. On the day her A-Level results came through, the Chelmsford teenager could only finish fifth in her heat in 2:01.48, well below her best.
Later in the morning session, Jodie Williams went through from the women’s 200m heats, but there was a shock when in-form Liverpool sprinter Anyika Onuora crashed out.