Athlete Laura Muir lived up to the expectations as she became the second woman to win the 3,000m gold in history to win the distance double at the European Indoors.
Muir, who won the 1500m title just a few hours before the event, produced a master class on the track as she completely outpowered Kenyan-born Yasemin Can in the final lap. Her time of 8.35.67 to win gold was enough to set a championship record and equal the double achieved by Poland’s Lidia Chojecka in 2007.
Elish McColgan, daughter of legend Liz McColgan, won the bronze after finishing behind Can with 8:47.43 and won her first ever medal of his career. The win bought Britain’s tally to 10 and this equalled their best ever European Indoors record haul which was on home soil in Birmingham in 2007.
Furthermore, Muir – after the race – said: “Halfway through the race, I was thinking I’m feeling a bit tired, and I was hoping Can wasn’t going to ramp it up anymore. I managed to hang in there and knew I had the kick so I just waited and then went for it.
“I’m delighted to come away with another win and do the double I was hoping to. I only had about five or six hours sleep as I was still awake at 3 Am. I got to bed quite early but just couldn’t sleep because I was buzzing from the 1500m race.
