Moments after a world 1500m final so brutal it could have carried an 18 certificate, Laura Muir flopped to the track, closed her eyes and began swallowing vast gulps of oxygen. She was still on the floor five minutes later – longer than the race itself – waiting for the fire in her lungs and legs to extinguish, when a kindly official slipped a bronze medal around her neck. Then she began to smile.
The toughest race of her life, she called it. But in truth it was less a race, more of a slugfest between three of the greatest female middle-distance runners in history. There was no room for in-race subtleties or tactical niceties. Instead it became an all-out war from gun to tape: the 1500m equivalent of Marvin Hagler v Tommy Hearns with Ken Buchanan also wading in.
