Laura Muir wins second gold at European Indoor Championships
By PA Sports
Last Updated: 05/03/17 7:07pm
Britain's Laura Muir completed her dream double after claiming gold in the 3,000 metres and Asha Philip claimed a surprise 60m crown at the European Indoor Championships.
Muir stormed to victory in a championship record of eight minutes 35.67 seconds on Sunday after Saturday's 1,500m victory in Belgrade.
Team-mate Eilish McColgan claimed third as Muir won by over eight seconds ahead of Turkey's Yasemin Can.
Sprinter Philip, who won bronze in the 4x100m relay at the Olympics last year, finished ahead of ahead of Ukraine's Olesya Povh and Poland's Ewa Swoboda in 7.06 seconds to take the British gold medal haul to five in Serbia.
The women's 4x400 metre relay squad of Eilidh Doyle, Laviai Nielsen, Philippa Lowe and Mary Iheke also claimed silver in three minutes 31.05 seconds behind Poland.
The quartet tried to lead from the start but were caught by Poland on the third leg.
Lorraine Ugen took silver in the women's long jump, Shelayna Oskan-Clarke also claimed silver in the women's 800 metres and Robbie Grabarz took silver in the men's high jump.
Muir and Can broke away early before the Scot powered away with 300m to go and overcame tiredness to win easily.
Muir said: "I was still awake at 3am. I got to bed quite early but just couldn't sleep because I was buzzing from the race yesterday. The legs felt okay but definitely quite tired and I got about five or six hours' sleep.
"Halfway through the race I was thinking 'I'm feeling a bit tired', and I was hoping she wasn't going to ramp it up anymore. I managed to hang in there and knew I had the kick so I just waited and then I went for it.
"I don't know about that (whether her run was of a similar style to Sir Mo Farah). I think he can run a bit quicker than me. I just knew that's where my strengths lie.
"I knew what Can would likely do being an endurance athlete so I needed to kick as much as I could."
And Muir, who will return to her studies as a vet on Tuesday, knows her double will put further pressure on her to succeed.
She said: "You can't go winning medals and breaking records and not go raising expectations. I'll take it all in my stride. I take it as support, not pressure, and I've shown I can deal with it."
McColgan, whose mother Liz won 1988 Olympic 10,000m silver, beat Holland's Maureen Koster almost on the line to reach the podium while Steph Twell came fifth.
"She has shown she's more than capable of doing it. People like (Almaz) Ayana is another athlete as well, it's a different type of running, Laura has such a good kick but Ayana will go from the gun and break a world record," McColgan
said.
"In the 1,500m Laura has shown she is easily one of the best in the world and one of the best we have ever had."
McColgan, who finished in eight mins 47.43 secs, added: "When you see the medal is there, with 200m to go I was thinking 'this is my chance'. I would have been so disappointed with fourth, it's the worst place to come.
"I've just picked the wrong generation with Laura and Can as well. It's not like they are the best in Europe, they are two of the best in the world."
