LAURA Muir jetted out to South Africa yesterday for her second warm weather training camp of the winter and she isn’t going out there just to work on a sun tan. The 25-year-old, who was mobbed by young fans after she anchored a Great Britain team over the line to rack up her fourth successive gold medal in the international mixed relay event at Saturday’s Great Stirling X Country, is a full-time Scottish-based athlete now but she still feels that cocooning herself away from all outside influences in a secluded stretch of the South African savannah every now and then provides the kind of professional environment she needs to continue her plans for world domination. By the time she returns to hopefully consolidate her spot at the British trials in February, the European Indoor Athletics Championships at her home venue will almost be upon us.
“Even though when I’m at home I’m a full-time athlete now, there are still a few distractions here and there,” said Muir, who cantered home after strong runs from her team-mates Jamie Williamson, Alex Bell and Phil Sesemann had capitalised on a wrong turn from USA’s Danielle Shanahan to give them a commanding lead. “But when I go away I know I am going to bed at 10, getting up at this time, what I’ll be training, what I’m eating, what time I’ll be getting physio.
“It is just a little bit more structured – it feels like you are away and you are out there to do a job. It is just more of a professional environment, athletes working very hard day in day out.”
Few athletes sacrifice more for their craft than Muir, a young woman who has a Netflix subscription that she never uses and whose main indulgences appear to be a love of rollercoasters and Harry Potter. If any downtime does present itself while she is away, the 25-year-old had some light reading packed away in her hand luggage when she crossed continents yesterday just in case.
Rather than the study notes and prescribed texts she took away with her whilst a vet student last year, this year she plans to catch up a book which has been gathering dust in her cabinet; the autobiography of one of her idols, David Attenborough.
“My mum and dad [Alison and Crawford] gave me David Attenborough’s autobiography years ago but I’ve never had the chance to read it,” said Muir on Saturday.
“So I have brought that with me. Maybe I shouldn’t be telling them that I haven’t read it yet! No, I think they know … and it will be nice to read something that isn’t vet notes, although it will still be animal related. There are lots of little cafes out there so you can always go out and get something to drink, have a chat or play cards or something.”
After three wins in this event over its previous course at Holyrood Park in Edinburgh, Muir had gone into the event expecting her sternest challenge yet, with Team Europe comprising all but one of the successful Spanish team from December’s European Championships. Instead, she got something of a stroll in the park, taking the foot of the gas during the first half of her 1.5km leg but ending up with a time of 4.38 which was identical to Bell’s storming second leg. After the trauma of his first-leg slip out in a muddy Tilburg, Williamson, the son of Scottish middle-distance legend Graham, was delighted about being able to get things started with a split time of 4.10 which was identical to that run by Sesemann.
“That was big for me, Last year I ran this event in Edinburgh for Scotland and that went well, we finished fifth, but doing it for GB and winning it, it is a great start for 2019. It would be nice if I could keep this going, maybe into the European Under-23s. Just having people like Laura in your team, and learning from them, is a great experience.”
With Europe, who retained their overall team prize, second and USA third, there was intrigue further back in the field when Scotland’s Under-20 team of Kane Elliott, Erin Wallace, Joe Ewing and Sarah Calvert pipped the senior team of Adam Craig, Mhairi Hendry, Michael Ferguson and Steph Pennycook to seventh spot by all of a second. If this was harsh, particularly on Inverclyde’s Craig, who produced a fine first leg, a sterling second leg effort was another feather in the cap of Erin Wallace, the 18-year-old who is making waves in both triathlon and athletics and is another recent recruit to Young’s training group.
Hillary Bor kept his nerve despite taking a wrong turn to claim the men’s elite 8k race, while Elena Burkard of Germany held off Great Britain’s Charlotte Arter to claim the elite women’s 6k crown.
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