Laura Muir laid down an almighty marker for Glasgow 2019 by shattering the 31-year British indoor mile record at the Muller Grand Prix in Birmingham.
The Glasgow 2019 ambassador has declared her intent to defend both 1500m and 3000m European Indoor golds and showed she’s in no mood to let those titles slip with an imperious display.
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Muir blazed a trail with an opening 400m inside 68s, eclipsing the pacer on 850m and roaring home in 4:18.75, breaking fellow Scot Kirsty Wade’s record by a full five seconds.
Brilliant run by laura Muir ,fab Pb by josh Kerr in the 1500m and national record , strong run by Chris o hare after his 3 k last week and nice to see Eilidh back on firm ,Scottish athletics is definitely in good hands @joshk97 @chrisohare1500 @EilidhDoyle @lauramuiruns
— liz mccolgan (@Lizmccolgan) February 16, 2019
“In the last race before Glasgow, I’m so happy I could do that,” said Muir, who now holds an incredible five British records.
“It was fantastic – I’ve run at Birmingham a few times so it’s great to come back, the crowd is always amazing and it was no different today.
“I’m hoping to do double gold in Glasgow. I’ll be going there to give it my best shot and I’d be over the moon to get two gold medals.
“I do realise the magnitude of the task, but I feel like I should be able to do that, I can do it and I want to go out there and do it in front of the home crowd.”
The rousing race stands as the third-best mile effort of all-time indoors, trailing only five-time indoor world champion Genzebe Dibaba and three-time European indoor gold medallist Doina Melinte.
Laura Muir moves to third on the world indoor all-time mile lists with 4:18.75 in Birmingham!
🇪🇹 G. Dibaba 4:13.31
🇷🇴 Melinte 4:17.14
🇬🇧 Muir 4:18.75
🇷🇴 Ivan 4:18.99
🇳🇱 Hassan 4:19.89
🇩🇪 Klosterhalfen 4:19.98 pic.twitter.com/3lxb0oWfkb— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) February 16, 2019
The 25-year-old is a British record-holder over 1000, 1500m, 3000m, 5000m and now the mile.
Elsewhere, there was an encouraging return to action for Eilish McColgan – forced to sit out last year’s British Indoor Championships – in the 3000m.
The middle-distance star, 2017 European indoor bronze medallist, clocked 8:57.19s on her first race back from illness, a season’s best.
Eilidh Doyle also registered a SB in the 400m, snatching silver behind Jamaica’s Stephenie Ann McPherson.
And the Scots also shone in the men’s 1500m, Josh Kerr setting a fresh national indoor record for fourth, with already-qualified aces Chris O’Hare setting a season’s best and Neil Gourley a PB.
Shelayna Oskan-Clarke underlined her credentials to challenge in Scotland’s biggest city with 800m glory, a race in which Brits Adelle Tracey and Lynsey Sharp also placed highly.
Meanwhile, reigning European indoor long jump champion Ivana Spanovic served notice of her form with a golden leap of 6.78m.