LAURA MUIR is fearless in the extreme. “I quite like spiders,” she confesses. “I’m the one nominated by the group to get rid of any bugs or bats or anything like that when we’re away. I’m the chief get-rid-of-something.”
If six hairy crawly legs doesn’t faze her, then four races in three days will barely force the Scot to furrow her brow. The 23-year-old will start her bid for a golden double at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade with the 3000 metres heats this morning before returning for duty in the 1500m tonight.
Surviving both, expected to be a formality, would give her a final tomorrow and on Sunday. “It’s probably quite a lot,” she admits. “But it’s something quite a lot of young athletes are used to – you might be running an 800, 1500 and maybe a 4x400 as well on one day. It seems a little bit soft compared to that. In terms of the schedule, I’ve not done that many races in that amount of time. But I train very hard day in and day out so I don’t see that I won’t be able to cope with it.”
With two European records already during this indoor campaign, the veterinary student has gone from hunter to hunted, no longer the fringe medal hope she was at last summer’s Olympics. Muir knows her own strengths better than ever before and is unafraid to employ them to bend others to her will.
But she has gone to championships before with high hopes and left with disappointment, even tears. Even a solitary bronze here would represent advancement.
“It’s great to be breaking records,” Muir acknowledges. “But then records are there to be broken. I want to be one of the big athletes out there with medals against their name so I’d love to get a couple of medals on the table and that will give me a lot of confidence to head on.”
She is set to be joined in both events by Eilish McColgan with Steph Twell accompanying both in the 3000m. All three could end up on the podium. Muir wants the top step and nothing but. “That’s my main goal for the event, to get two golds. But at the end of the day, I have to run the best race I can.”
Elsewhere on the opening day, Andy Pozzi will start as favourite to lift the 60m hurdles title tonight, Eilidh Doyle has the opening two rounds of the 400m while Guy Learmonth begins his 800m bid.
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