When Laura Muir and Keely Hodgkinson gaze at their trophy cabinets from the past 18 months they see Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth medals. At the World Indoor Tour final in Birmingham on Saturday, however, their sole focus will be on hunting down world records.
Muir has by far the easier task as she seeks to break Maria Mutola’s 24-year indoor 1,000m record. In 2017, before super spikes revolutionised the sport, Muir set a British and European record of 2min 31.93sec – 0.99sec outside Mutola’s best. But armed with the latest Nike shoes, and having proved her fitness over the winter, Muir has the world record firmly in her sights.
“I feel I’m in a really good spot. I was fortunate the last time I competed in the kilometre in Birmingham I got the European record, so hopefully I can go one further,” said Muir, who is also preparing for next week’s European Indoor Championships in Istanbul.
“I’ve had a couple of shots at the K, I’m getting a better feel for it,” she said. “It’s definitely tricky, it’s nasty. It’s running 800m and keeping going. It’s the most painful of the distances I’ve competed. I’ve got the 800m speed but I’ve also got that bit of endurance.
“It’s always going to hurt when you’re racing. Even more so when you try to run faster than there has ever been. Pain is temporary, though.”
Hodgkinson said breaking Jolanda Ceplak’s 800m world record of 1min 55.82sec set on 3 March 2002 – the day Hodgkinson was born – will be a much harder task. “I feel I am in pretty good shape and if the perfect race was to happen I could get close to it,” she said. “But it’s a very hard record to break.
“I would have to go 57.2 or 57.3 at halfway,” she said. “For me it is just about attacking it and hitting that mark of 57 and trying to get a smooth run. I haven’t raced on the new surface, but it looks really nice. But my ultimate aim is to beat my own British record.”
Other highlights include Dina Asher-Smith racing British rival Daryll Neita in the 60m, Olympic bronze medallist Josh Kerr competing in the 1500m and the Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay attacking the women’s 3,000m world record.
