Oregon 22 World Athletics Champs: Laura Muir’s first World Championship Medal

This is Laura Muir’s first World Championships medal, with her bronze medal in the Women’s 1,500 meters on day four. Stuart Weir wrote this piece for RunBlogRun. This was first medal at World Champs for Team GBR. 

Laura Muir’s first World Championship medal

Laura Muir followed her Olympic silver with a World Championship bronze, having finished third in the World Championship at Oregon 22. It was a fast race from the gun, as shown by statistics released by World Athletics.

The first four, then three athletes, broke away from the pack and the medals were clearly between them. Gudaf Tsegay led most of the way, but in the end, it was Faith Kipyegon who won.  Laura Muir stayed in touch without ever really challenging the two leaders.  The final result was:

1 Faith Kipyegon (Kenya) 3:52.96

2 Gudaf Tsegay (Ethiopia) 3:54.52

3 Laura Muir (GB) 3:55.28

After two-fifths and a fourth previously in the 1500m at the World Athletics Championships (outdoors), Laura Muir won her medal.  In both 2017 and 2019, she was not fully fit.  This year she had to abandon plans for any indoor races because of injury, but she has been able to get herself in a shape to challenge the best. She explained: “I had the most significant injury of my career this February. I didn’t run for two months. That is the longest time I’ve had off running since starting, but I had confidence in myself and my ability that we had time”. 

She told me afterward: “I am happy.  This is the championship that was bugging me. I really wanted to medal, so to get that bronze behind two incredibly fast women is very special.

I expected the race to be fast, but not that fast from the start.  But I didn’t look at the clock because I thought it wouldn’t do me any favors to look at the time. I just focused on racing and wasn’t aware of any splits.  I knew it was fast because I was hurting a lot. But to run 3:55 off those splits shows that there is a really fast time in there”. 

Laura told me that she was not really aware of the size of the gap behind her until the last lap when she heard the bell ring for the leaders and then, a few seconds later, ring again.  She said she was just running as fast as she could, hoping that no one came past her.

She added: “Faith and Tsegay are two of the greatest 1500m runners there has ever been. This time last year, I didn’t have any global outdoor medals, and now I have two. I am so delighted. This was the one that was bugging me. After I got the Olympic silver last year, I was like, this is the year I am going to get it, and I’ve got it; I am so pleased.”

The success is also a tribute to Andy Young, who has coached Laura for her entire career.