Laura Muir all set for Diamond League in Gateshead
Laura Muir has enjoyed success on the roads of Gateshead in the past, but she has yet to win a track race there.
She will hope to put that right on May 23, though, when she races at the Müller Grand Prix Gateshead. It is the first stop in the Wanda Diamond League series and the Scottish athlete, who turned 28 on Sunday, is set to run 1500m.
“I am training and racing in the United States right now, but the Müller Grand Prix Gateshead will be my first competition in the UK when I return home later this month,” she says. “Diamond League events are always exciting and it is extra special for me when the event is on British soil.
“I have won road mile races at the CityGames in the North East of England a few times over the years. But the last time I actually raced at Gateshead International Stadium was in the National Junior League as a teenager! I didn’t win those races either so hopefully this month I can try to win my first-ever track race at the venue.”
Indeed, Muir has won the road mile on Newcastle and Gateshead Quayside and also at nearby Stockton-on-Tees. But on the track she was beaten in a couple of National Junior League Northern Premier Division races in 2011 – losing to Tyra Watson over 800m and Hollie Young at 1500m.
In the decade following those defeats as a teenager, though, Muir has blossomed into one of the biggest stars in British athletics. She is the British record-holder for 1500m with 3:55.22 and reigning European champion.
She looks in great shape this year, too. Last month in Eugene, Oregon, she enjoyed a runaway win in the 1500m in 4:01.54, whereas on Sunday (May 9) she celebrated her birthday with a fine second place behind training partner Jemma Reekie in the 800m at the Continental Tour Gold at Mt Sac in California, narrowly missing her PB with 1:58.46.
Largely due to the coronavirus pandemic, it will also be Muir’s first race in Britain since February last year when she raced indoors several times in Glasgow.
In Gateshead in less than a fortnight’s time Muir will be joined by fellow Brits Melissa Courtney-Bryant, Eilish McColgan, Adelle Tracey and Holly Archer.
Courtney-Bryant holds Welsh records for 3000m and 5000m and two years ago won bronze in the European indoor 3000m final as Muir took a 1500m and 3000m double. McColgan is a two-time Olympic finalist and European 5000m silver medallist. Better known as an 800m runner, Tracey ran a 1:59.50 PB for two laps this weekend in Muir’s race in Mt Sac. Archer, meanwhile, won the British indoor 1500m title in 2020 and European indoor silver at the distance two months ago.
Added to this, in recent days the organisers have announced a red-hot women’s 100m featuring Dina Asher-Smith, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Elaine Thompson-Herah and Sha’Carri Richardson, while the men’s pole vault sees a clash between Mondo Duplantis, Sam Kendricks and Piotr Lisek.
Tickets for the meeting are due to go on sale this week with organisers calculating in recent days how many spectators they can safely allow into the venue.
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