Laura Muir insisted there had to be big question marks over the 1500 metres final at the World Championships in Doha.
The Scots star claimed the race was tainted after Alberto Salazar- trained Dutch rival Sifan Hassan cruised to gold.
Muir, 26, admitted she just didn’t have enough in the tank after fighting back from a torn calf muscle as she slumped from second to fifth on the last lap.
Her time of 3:55.76 was her quickest of the year in one of the fastest races of all time.
Hassan, who also landed 10,000m gold, won by a country mile in 3:51.95, just a few days after her coach Salazar was booted out of the sport for doping.
Muir said: “Given the news of the past couple of days, I think there is a cloud.
“There’s no avoiding that but all you can do is focus on your performances.
“That’s absolutely all you can do and for me to put in that kind of race out there, then I’m really happy about that and I can take a lot of confidence from it.”
Muir was perfectly positioned on the shoulder of Hassan with a lap to go but she simply didn’t have an answer when Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon surged past to take silver while Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay pulled away for the bronze medal.
Muir had faced a race back to fitness and she almost won.
Now she’ll look ahead to the Tokyo Olympics and hope there are no more bumps in the road.
She said: “The rehab didn’t go as smoothly as we wanted to. We had a couple of setbacks.
“I was tweaking a couple of things. You lose that conditioning when you come back.
“I got a stomach bug a couple of weeks ago that took out half a week. If you add it all up, the injury took a lot out.
“Another tweak was half a week. It all builds up. Even with the injury and other things, I managed that time so I’m excited about what I can do.”
Hassan blasted back at the doubters and claimed it was their words which spurred her on to a Doha double.
She said: “I was so angry at the world. I am clean and I’m showing everyone just how clean I am.” Eilish McColgan was left fuming after coming 10th in the 5,000 metres final, even though she smashed her own Scottish record.
The Dundonian took a gamble in taking an early lead and it paid off with a time of 14:46.17.
But she was well off the pace as Kenyan’s Hellen Obiri defended her title in a championship record of 14:26.72.
McColgan said: “You are just a sitting duck.
“I was waiting for Obiri to come past and I’m a little disappointed because I feel there is more there.
“But it’s still a Scottish record. It’s frustrating I couldn’t sneak into the top eight. Tenth place feels a little bit disappointing to me.”
Neil Gourley wants to lead the Tartan Trio home in tonight’s men’s 1500m final and land himself a shock medal.
The British champion, 24, will be joined by Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman but even though the Glaswegian is a 120-1 shot for gold, he insists he won’t hold back.
Gourley admitted: “I certainly seem to raise my game when I am in a championships. I’m going to raise my game in that final and I don’t know where that puts me.”
