LAST NIGHT, GREAT Britain’s Laura Muir won the first global medal of her career as she ran to a superb 3000m bronze at the 2018 World Indoor Championships.
2018 World Indoor bronze medalist Laura Muir. Andy Astfalck
Andy Astfalck
The race itself was a pulsating one with the eventual winner, Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba, made work hard on her final lap as Muir and Sifan Hassan battled to close the gap.
The favourite held on to cross the line first in a time of 8:45.05 though. Hassan edged the silver, while Muir pleased the home crowd in Birmingham by claiming Team GB’s first medal of the competition.
It also capped the end of a fairly hectic 24 hours, with the 24-year-old Scottish athlete unsure if she’d even make it to the Arena Birmingham to compete.
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We know all about Storm Emma and the Beast from the East at this stage, and they well and truly played havoc with Muir’s travel plans, as she faced a blizzard and further adverse weather conditions en route to her destination.
She’s in the final year of her veterinary degree at the University of Glasgow and started work on Wednesday morning in a small animal hospital. Next on the agenda — or so she thought — was a flight, which later switched to a train as conditions worsened.
Laura Muir's last 24 hours: - Wake up and go to work at an animal hospital. - Try and fail to get multiple flights from Glasgow to Birmingham because of snow. - Take a seven-hour, 300-mile taxi instead. - Win world indoor 3,000m bronze. Easy, really.
But Storm Emma well and truly vented its wrath and Muir was forced to travel to the midlands by taxi, which reportedly cost £1,500 and took six hours.
“I went to vets school on Wednesday morning and saw a couple of appointments were cancelled so I got to go home early,” she explained, in quotes published on The Guardian.
“We tried to get flights but all of them were cancelled so it was a matter of trying to get a taxi. I never expected the weather we had, or that the airport was going to be shut.
“There was a time when I thought we weren’t going to make it. When we were leaving the house there was a lot of snow and the taxi was two hours late, so we didn’t know then if it was going to turn up.
“And going through Carlisle it was crazy. We couldn’t see the bonnet, the windscreen wipers were freezing. It took us about six hours to arrive and we got here at 11pm.”
We made it!!! 🙌🙌 Birmingham bound! Big thanks to our taxi driver who drove us through multiple blizzards to get us here 👏👏
But she was delighted to finish 3rd last night, rewarded for her efforts.
“I raced smart and came away with a medal, which was the main thing,” Muir, who lines out in the 1500m heats today, added.
“I’ve known the ability is there. It’s just been a matter of trying to judge it tactics-wise. I’ve been fourth, fifth and sixth at world championships and seventh in Rio, so to come away with a bronze here is excellent.”
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Scottish runner bags World bronze after nightmare six-hour, £1,500 taxi journey
LAST NIGHT, GREAT Britain’s Laura Muir won the first global medal of her career as she ran to a superb 3000m bronze at the 2018 World Indoor Championships.
The race itself was a pulsating one with the eventual winner, Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba, made work hard on her final lap as Muir and Sifan Hassan battled to close the gap.
The favourite held on to cross the line first in a time of 8:45.05 though. Hassan edged the silver, while Muir pleased the home crowd in Birmingham by claiming Team GB’s first medal of the competition.
It also capped the end of a fairly hectic 24 hours, with the 24-year-old Scottish athlete unsure if she’d even make it to the Arena Birmingham to compete.
We know all about Storm Emma and the Beast from the East at this stage, and they well and truly played havoc with Muir’s travel plans, as she faced a blizzard and further adverse weather conditions en route to her destination.
She’s in the final year of her veterinary degree at the University of Glasgow and started work on Wednesday morning in a small animal hospital. Next on the agenda — or so she thought — was a flight, which later switched to a train as conditions worsened.
But Storm Emma well and truly vented its wrath and Muir was forced to travel to the midlands by taxi, which reportedly cost £1,500 and took six hours.
“I went to vets school on Wednesday morning and saw a couple of appointments were cancelled so I got to go home early,” she explained, in quotes published on The Guardian.
“We tried to get flights but all of them were cancelled so it was a matter of trying to get a taxi. I never expected the weather we had, or that the airport was going to be shut.
“And going through Carlisle it was crazy. We couldn’t see the bonnet, the windscreen wipers were freezing. It took us about six hours to arrive and we got here at 11pm.”
But she was delighted to finish 3rd last night, rewarded for her efforts.
“I raced smart and came away with a medal, which was the main thing,” Muir, who lines out in the 1500m heats today, added.
“I’ve known the ability is there. It’s just been a matter of trying to judge it tactics-wise. I’ve been fourth, fifth and sixth at world championships and seventh in Rio, so to come away with a bronze here is excellent.”
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