Laura Muir Retains European Indoor 3000m Title in Glasgow

Running in front of a partisan home crowd in Glasgow, Laura Muir used a spectacular close, running her final 200 meters in 28.32 and successfully defend her title in the 3,000 meters in a championship record of 8:30.61. In the process, she crushed the Wanamaker Mile champion, Germany’s Konstanze Klosterhalfen, who ran a respectable 8:34.06 but was utterly helpless on the last lap.

After sitting on Klosterhalfen for the second half of the race, Muir took the lead at the bell, and her acceleration was a sight to behold. Once she was around Klosterhalfen, the gap between the two runners began to grow exponentially, and what was expected to be a close race was over midway down the back straight. But even then, Muir would not let off the gas, powering through the line to take down Klosterhalfen’s world leader of 8:32.47 as well.

Muir covered her final 1500 meters in 4:05 flat, a time that, when coupled with Muir’s 28.32 final 200, would be enough to win most 1500 races on the planet. And making the performance all the more impressive was the fact that it was Muir’s second race in the span of two-and-a-half hours; she ran 4:09 to qualify for the final of the 1500 earlier in the day.

Klosterhalfen, who had fresh legs after opting out of the 1500, was content to sit behind leader Eilish McColgan of Great Britain in the race’s early stages. But, correctly fearing Muir’s kick, Klosterhalfen tried to take the sting out of her opponent’s legs by hammering the final mile. She took the lead at 1400 meters and dropped a 66.17 for the next 400 meters, but would need to do more than that to drop Muir.

Muir will return to the track on Sunday evening for the 1500 meters, and after today’s race, it seems a formality that the Brit will complete a second consecutive 1500-3k double.

posted Saturday March 2nd