Laura Muir wants to continue breaking new ground in Monaco tonight and underline her status as a Diamond League star.
The European champion has saved some of her very best for the Herculis meeting, which has again attracted the athletics world’s A-List to the principality.
This time, the 27-year-old Hawkhill Harrier will test herself in the 1,000 metres against fellow-Scot Jemma Reekie and a formidable cast that includes Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon and Northern Ireland’s Ciara Mageean.
Muir recognises that her regular sampling of the high life among Monaco’s millionaires has brought a rich vein of results. She said: “It’s been a really good competition for me.
“I broke four minutes the first time in 2015 over 1,500m, ran 8.30 over 3,000m in 2017, which was an outdoor personal best at the time, and then ran my 800m PB there last year.
“So three times, three bests, in three different distances – and this year it’s another different distance so hopefully it’ll be another PB. Around about 2.30 would be nice. It’s difficult to know because a 1,000m outdoors can be a bit unpredictable, depending on how it’s run.
“It’s one of those races where if you don’t get it right, it can really hurt.
“If you nail it, you’ll go very fast, but to get it wrong, you lose a lot.”
Monaco organisers have put strict protocols in place to ensure their showpiece can proceed with a minimal risk of spreading coronavirus.
Athletes have been placed in a bubble away from the public over the past 72 hours, enduring the cruel hardship of being confined to a luxurious seafront hotel with little interaction planned at the Stade Louis II.
But Muir, who was a close second to Reekie in their summer opener in Trieste a fortnight ago, feels refreshed after a rather more frugal stint of training at Font Romeu in the French Pyrenees.
She said: “I found it really good. Because we’d been stuck in Glasgow for so long, it was nice to have the change of scenery. It didn’t feel as hard as I’d remembered previously. Altitude normally is hard, but just having that environment, you forget about things.”
Fellow Dundee Hawkhill Harrier Eilish McColgan faces double world champions Sifan Hassan and Hellen Obiri in the 5,000m, while Jake Wightman will have to contend with Kenya’s world champion Timothy Cheruiyot and Norwegian tyro Jakob Ingebrigtsen as he hunts his first Diamond League victory since his landmark triumph in Oslo in 2017.
Wightman said: “That race showed me I can beat these athletes.
“I beat Elijah Manangoi who went on to win the world title. Confidence wise, knowing I can win a race of that calibre, I thought: ‘why can’t I do in a championships?’
“It’s tainted because my worlds in 2017 wasn’t as good as it could have been.
“At the end of the day, Diamond Leagues don’t mean anything. You really need to turn up at champs.”
Elsewhere, in-form Andy Pozzi is bidding for a seventh win in a row in the 110m hurdles and Adam Gemili will face off with world champion Noah Lyles over 200m.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson will unleash her competitive frustrations in the high jump after confessing her difficulties in surviving a pre-Olympic summer without a heptathlon.
