Laura wins 1500m gold as Jemma, Jake, 4×400 Relay team reach finals

Friday 19th August 2022

Photo by European Athletics via Getty Images

Unstoppable Laura Muir retained her Women’s 1500m title at the European Championships to complete a 2022 summer ‘clean sweep’ of medals at major events.

The Oregon World Champs bronze medallist won bronze and gold at the Commonwealth Games when representing Team Scotland at 800m and then 1500m.

And Muir added the European crown to her long list of achievement with power surge from shortly before the bell that only Ireland’s Ciara Mageean sought to challenge.

In the end, Laura won in 4:01.08 with Mageean at 4:02.56 to deliver the same 1-2 as at Birmingham 2022.

The stats are almost endless around the illustrious Scot’s career but here are three well worth highlighting:

*It’s her sixth European Championship gold across indoor and outdoor events

*That’s now five major finals in a row with a place on the podium across Olympics, Worlds, two Commonwealth finals and Munich 2022

*It’s a 12th major medal of her career. In terms of medals from individual events, that’s one more than the 11 tally held by Yvonne Murray for Scottish athletes and joint on a dozen with Kelly Holmes in British terms.

Many congratulations to Laura and her family and coach Andy Young as well as all at Dundee Hawkhill Harriers and Glasgow University who helped shape her development in the sport.

BBC Sport coverage

‘On paper, the Europeans was the easiest, one event only two rounds, so physically it was the easiest but it was so tough mentally.

‘It was the most difficult race I think I’ve ever run and credit to all the other athletes that have done the three because it’s so difficult.

‘My coach Andy [Young] looked at all the splits and he said nobody can match you over 400m and if you give a good kick and get a gap I can maintain it and you’ve got a good chance so credit goes to him for the tactics, he made a good call there.

‘I just knew to stick to it as best I could because sometimes 1500m is unpredictable but it went to plan.’

Photo by James Rhodes

Photo via European Athletics

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In the Men’s 800m semi-finals, Jake Wightman made it into the final after a late charge in his semi-final.

It was a tight race which threatened a tight finish with the top three to land automatic progress to Sunday’s final.

But the World champion at 1500m found an extra kick to place second in 1:46.61 and make sure. So Jake will contest the 800m final as he did at the 2018 Commonwealths when he finished fourth (before then winning bronze in the 1500m in Australia).

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Photo by European Athletics (from heats)

Earlier on Friday, Jemma Reekie glided through to take second behind France’s Rénelle Lamote in 2:00.30 and reach the final.

‘I didn’t mean to (get boxed in),’ admitted Reekie.

‘In my head I was like, ‘stay calm, stay calm’. I was like, ‘OK, tactical head on now!’. The last thing Andy (Young) said to me was ‘keep your cool’. I know I have a good sprint finish, so I was just like, ‘Wait until the last 200m then I can get through’.’

Zoey Clark and Nicole Yeargin ran well to help the GB and NI team to victory in their Women’s 4x400m heat.

Zoey had the team off to a flying start to set it up for Ama Pipi. The lead was significant by the team Nicole took the baton and Laviai Nielsen brought the baton home.

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Tags: Jake Wightman, Jemma Reekie, Laura Muir, Nicole Yeargin, Zoey Clark