MUIR THE MERRIER

Scots track star targets summer golds after her Diamond League success

UNLEASHED once again after four months of frustration, Laura Muir had little appetite to hold back at yesterday’s Diamond League stop in Birmingham.

Medals are the Scot’s forte. Spells on the sidelines are not her preferred pastime. But in the stadium where she goes for Commonwealth Games gold in July, the 29-year-old found herself right where she wanted to be on her comeback — at the front, motoring ferociously, fist-pumping the air at victory in the women’s 1500 metres.

The ideal rust-buster, she admitted, with the primary summer target of the world championships in Oregon less than two months away.

Muir kicked clear to head the field in a perfectly respectable time of 4:02.81, with training partner Jemma Reekie fifth. It was a fine reward for an intense spell of rehab in the mountains of Switzerland that followed a less than magical mystery tour to find the cause of the pain that derailed her indoor campaign in the spring.

‘We fixed the joint in the back, and then we found out it was the hips instead,’ Muir revealed. ‘So I was just compensating so much without

realising it. And it was making it really hard to detect where the pain was. But when we got some special scans in London, they found the stress response in the femur, and that was that. So it just had to start rehab from there — I was on crutches and in the swimming pool and in the gym. But it’s really good now.’

It’s now full steam ahead for Muir, to the next Diamond League leg in

the Nike-funded stadium in Oregon that is set to provide the stage for her tilt at a maiden global crown. No pain, no fear, no limits, she underlined after her success in the Midlands.

‘I’ve just smashed the last month or so in training and it’s gone really, really well,’ she said. ‘I’m very, very happy with where I’m at. Even not 100 per cent, I still am in a really, really good place.’

Meanwhile, Keely Hodgkinson rebounded from her own springtime injury issues by taking the women’s 800m in 1:58.63. Her winning time was the fastest she has run in 2022. ‘It’s still early days but it’s exciting,’ she said.

Scotland’s other Tokyo athletics medallist, Josh Kerr, shrugged off coming fifth in the men’s 1500m, insisting he will be all right on the night when medals are on the line.

The 24-year-old, in only his second-ever Diamond League outing, was off his best as Kenya’s Abel Kipsang — who finished one place behind Kerr in coming fourth at the Olympics — stormed to victory in 3:35.15.

But Kerr said: ‘I am a championship racer and that’s when I’m going to be fit and ready to go. So things like this haven’t always been part of the plan. They are now.

‘I enjoyed myself. I learned a lot but it’s not the result I was looking for.’

Jake Wightman’s plans to run the 800m at August’s Europeans were dented with fourth place — but Zoey Clark came out on top in the women’s 400m in 51.88 secs, with the Aberdonian inside the Commonwealth qualifying standard for the second time in six days.