Sport Laura Muir fifth in 1500m final at World Athletics Championships

Laura Muir says the time she recorded in the World Championships 1500m final has given her confidence before next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

The Scot, 26, was just outside her personal best as she finished fifth in a race won by Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan.

A calf problem meant Muir had not raced since July before coming to Doha.

“I don’t know what to say, I was fifth in 3:55.76,” she said. “I am just speechless but I am so proud of myself.”

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Hassan took gold in a championship record time of three minutes 51.95 seconds. Kenyan defending champion Faith Kipyegon took silver, with Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay third.

Before the championships Muir was training in South Africa in a bid to prove her fitness following the injury and in an interview with the BBC, the Inverness-born athlete said she was able to race “straight off the bat” as a result of her sessions.

The ease in which she made it through her heat then semi-final proved she was correct.

However, when it came to the final her attempt to challenge the cavalier Hassan failed to pay off as the Ethiopian-born Dutch runner romped home to pick up her second gold of the championships.

“I just tried to cover the moves as best I can,” Muir said. “I clocked it at 800m, it was fast – I expected people to die a bit but must have kept the pace fast or faster.

“I could not have asked more of myself to do that. If I can run that sort of time off the minor training I’ve done, if I’m 100% fit I can be confident going into next year.”

This was the fifth time Muir had finished inside the top seven at an Olympics or World Championships.

At London 2017, the Inverness-born athlete impressed when she came fourth in the 1500m and sixth in the 5,000m, before she won her first major outdoor title by taking European 1500m gold in Berlin.

Injury scuppered her preparations for these championships, and a fit Muir might have sneaked into the podium positions.

However, her hopes of finally earning a major global medal next year might be made more difficult with Ethiopia’s world record holder Genzebe Dibaba expected to return from injury.

• Day-to-day guide to the Championships
• How to follow live on BBC TV, radio and online

McColgan & Weightman run PBs in 5,000m final

Britain’s hopes of a medal were also dashed in the women’s 5,000m as Laura Weightman and Eilish McColgan finished in seventh and 10th.

The duo set personal bests but were unable to stick with the punishing pace set by the defending champion and Olympic silver medallist Hellen Obiri.

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In a race where 11 of the top 14 finishers set lifetime bests, Weightman took seven seconds off her previous mark set in London in July to finish in 14 minutes 44.57 seconds.

McColgan also knocked two seconds off her previous best time to establish a Scottish record of 14:46.17.

Weightman and McColgan’s times are the third and fourth best by a British athletes in the event behind Paula Radcliffe and Jo Pavey.

Neither of the pair were able to influence the leading group of athletes as Obiri accelerated away from fellow Kenyan Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi and Germany’s Konstanze Klosterhalfen in the final 200m to take gold.

• Follow live BBC TV and text coverage of day nine at the World Championships
• Day-to-day guide to the Championships
• How to follow live on BBC TV, radio and online

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