The Emirates Arena staged a terrific tune-up for the European Athletics Indoor Championships as Laura Muir and Eilidh Doyle starred in the Glasgow Miler Meet.
The Scottish stars will be two of 650 athletes from more than 45 nations descending on the atmospheric arena for six sessions of breath-taking action from March 1-3.
And reigning double European indoor champion Muir laid down a statement winning time of 14:52.02s over 5000m – her second-fastest ever race over the distance indoors.
Fantastic night for Amber seeing her hero @lauramuiruns run the 5000m at the @scotathletics @GAAMilerMeet . What a fantastic runner and beautiful girl. Topped off with a photo, an autograph and Laura Muir saying ‘are you Amber?’ Amazing, one happy wee girl 😘❤ #littlegirlshero pic.twitter.com/Au2Ja6EehH
— Claire (@CC05JUN) 4 January 2019
“Digging deep is the best preparation for Glasgow 2019 at this stage and I’m pushing myself as hard as I can,” Muir told Scottish Athletics.
“It’s nice to get back in the Emirates Arena. I train on the track as much as I can and it’s great to race so close to home.
“I’m really happy with the time. It’s a solid run over a very long distance.
“You can’t get any closer to home for me than the Emirates and I’m desperate to do really well in front of my family and friends at Glasgow 2019.”
The 25-year-old, based in the iconic city for the last seven years, made a rousing return to the National Championships meet at which she broke the British 5000m record in 2017.
Gabriela Stafford, Muir’s training partner under coach Andrew Young, finished second and smashed the Canadian record in the process with a time of 14:57.45s.
Earlier in the evening, Doyle bettered her 2017 time over 200m to make a confident start to a campaign that culminates at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
Thanks @scotathletics and @GAAMilerMeet for putting on another great event tonight! Thanks again to these guys for pulling me around 200m! Great fun again but looking forward to getting back to 400m next weekend 😊 pic.twitter.com/ZFl8ekGvzV
— Eilidh Doyle (@EilidhDoyle) 4 January 2019
Eilidh registered 24.29s a year ago and went on to claim medals at the World Indoors and the Commonwealth Games, so 24.35s on Friday night augurs well for the coming campaign.
“I am pretty happy with that and it gives me a wee marker of where I am and how it compares to last year,” said Eilidh speaking to Scottish Athletics.
“We’re into 2019 now obviously and suddenly the European Indoors and Glasgow 2019 seems that much closer.
“It’s about trying to get things right in terms of qualifying and then peaking for the event at the start of March.”