Laura Muir on track for double gold at European Indoors
Friday 3 March 2017 18:42, UK
Great Britain's Laura Muir kept her hopes of double gold alive by reaching the finals of the 3,000m and 1,500m at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade.
The in-form 23-year-old clocked eight minutes and 55.56 seconds - almost 30 seconds slower than her own European record - to finish fifth in her heat of the 3,000m, before winning the 1500m qualifier in 4mins 10.28secs.
Muir will next race in the 1500m on Saturday, ahead of Sunday's 3,000m final.
She said after her 1500m run: "I wanted to conserve as much as I could ahead of the finals tomorrow and on Sunday.
"Home athletes always seem to pull it out the bag, so I had to keep an eye out for the other girl (Serbia's Amela Terzic), but I got the job done.
"You always want to win a race, so you just have to be sensible and do what is necessary.
"The job is done for tomorrow, so I'll just rest up now."
Muir has set European indoor records in the 1,000m and 3,000m this year, but stated before these championships that she was focusing on medals rather than records, after previously missing out on the podium.
She finished seventh at last year's Rio Olympics in the 1,500m and fourth (3,000m) and fifth (1,500m) at the European Indoor and World Championships respectively in 2015.
British team-mates Steph Twell and Eilish McColgan will join her in Sunday's 3,000m final after finishing second in their heats, while Sarah McDonald qualified for the 1500m final.
McColgan said: "I definitely think it's one of the stronger fields here: you've got a European record holder (Muir) and a 30.26 Olympian over 10k (Turkey's Yasemin Can), so it's pretty impressive and it'll be good to be a part of."
