No British man or woman has won a middle-distance Olympic medal since Kelly Holmes claimed double gold 17 years ago in Athens, writes Rebecca Myers. Tomorrow Laura Muir will do her bit to end that drought when she competes in the 1,500m heats, at her second Olympic Games.
The field is exceptionally strong, with the Dutch runner Sifan Hassan, who became the first woman to win gold over 1,500m and 10,000m at the World Championships in 2019, Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, the world-record holder in the distance indoors, and the defending Olympic champion, Faith Kipyegon of Kenya, the three fastest contenders.
Muir is ranked fourth in the world and has long appeared to be on the cusp of a medal. To give herself the best shot at standing on the podium here in Tokyo, she has pulled out of the 800m event, despite holding the second-fastest British women’s time in history over the distance, and has decided to focus solely on the 1,500m.
Hassan is thought to still be aiming to go in three events, the 1,500m, 5,000m, and 10,000m, meaning she will need to race five times in six days, including the heats for the 1,500m and the final of the 5,000m on the same day.
Hassan is a divisive figure, having worked with the disgraced coach Alberto Salazar until he was suspended for four years in 2019 for anti-doping violations. He was further banned for life from participating in track and field by the US Center for Safe Sport last week.
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Muir said after the 2019 race, in which Hassan took gold, that there was a “cloud” hanging over it, while Hassan herself had insisted: “I have been clean all my life.”
Asked recently about Hassan’s reputation in the locker room, Muir demurred. “I just tend to focus on myself, especially in the call room. I keep to myself and focus on my own performance,” she said.
Muir believes that her own commitment to one race is the right decision. “It will help a lot,” she explains. “We wanted to give ourselves the option of the double but, the more we looked at it, it would have been physically and mentally very, very tough. The rounds are on back-to-back days and, especially with the heat and conditions, it would have made it really challenging in terms of the recovery side. With the 1,500m, being my strongest event, and being the second event in the timetable, too, that was going to make it tough for me to be 100 per cent for that final.
“I just had to think my best chances of a medal are in the 1,500.”
