Laura breaks Scottish Record at 800m and Jemma also runs sub 1:57

Friday 9th July 2021

Photo via Diamond League/Dan Vernon

What an extraordinary Friday night out in Monaco for two of Scotland’s top athletes!

The Women’s 800m Diamond League was stacked with quality but the cream rose to the top as Laura Muir and Jemma Reekie went 1-2 with superb performances.

Laura’s 1:56.73 run takes down the Scottish Record and incredibly Jemma was inside 1:57 too, in a close second place in 1:56.96 as they saw off the challenges of America’s Kate Grace and Jamaica’s Natoya Goule in the closing stages.

Lynsey Sharp clocked 1:57.69 at the Olympics in Rio to land the Scottish Record and that stood for five years.

Now Laura is at the top of the two-lap distance as well as her other records over 1500m at British level. In fact, the British Women’s 800m Record held by Dame Kelly Holmes at 1:56.21 could yet be under threat from the Scottish duo.

Many congratulations to Laura, her family and coach Andy Young on a quite awesome performance in a race where the pace-maker didn’t deliver what was asked (57 seconds) and Laura even had to switch lanes a couple of times on the closing lap.

Well done, too, to Jemma, who of course is racing in the 800m at the Olympics in Japan.

‘I just thought “just run as fast as you can! This is Monaco, I know I am in great shape”,’ said Laura in Monaco.

‘This was my last race before Tokyo, so I just wanted to give it my best and put on paper the sort of shape that I know I am in and I am just so happy with that.

‘Having a training partner like Jemma is huge, Jemma has made me a much faster 800m runner. We push each other so much and we’ve both run 1:56, so I have definitely become faster because of her.

‘I am going to go home tomorrow, have a week at home before flying out to Tokyo and just train as hard as I can, so I am in even better shape in Tokyo. I want to win a medal, that is all I am focusing on.’

Laura for her part has now decided to focus completely on her 1500m – but there’s no doubt a big PB at 800m will give her another boost in that regard.

‘Running 1:56 is giving me huge confidence for Tokyo. I will only be running the 1500m now, I decided that only a couple of days ago but, yes, I couldn’t have asked for a better performance today ahead of the 1500 in Tokyo.

The Dundee Hawkhill Harriers athlete now holds the Scottish Records (outdoors) at 800m, 1000m, 1500m and one mile.

With thanks to Andy, Laura and Jemma for photo from Monaco

Photo by Matthew Quine/Diamond League

Scottish Record ?
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Monaco DL 800m win ?
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Massive PB 1.56.73 ?
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Jemma smashed it ?
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SOOO HAPPY!!!! ?? @ Monaco https://t.co/WZSiiH0MvN

— Laura Muir (@lauramuiruns) July 9, 2021