Laura Muir has revealed her excitement ahead of next year’s European Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
Fresh from winning two medals at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Birmingham earlier this month, Muir’s concentration will now be on her final exams at the University of Glasgow where she is studying to be a vet.
She is missing the Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast in April but will be determined to make the podium at the European Athletics Championships in Berlin in the summer.
And then, it will be time to prepare herself to become the star of the show at the 5000-seater Emirates Arena where she is set to defend her European indoor 1500m and 3000m titles.
“It is a great opportunity to have another home championships in a stadium that I know so well,” said Muir, 24, speaking to European Athletics.
“I have competed there a lot, I have trained there a lot and running on home soil is going to be very exciting. I have fond memories of the European Indoors from last year.”
Staged between 1-3 March, Muir will be the hottest ticket in town. In Belgrade last year, Muir was unstoppable as she broke the long-standing championship record in both finals.
She won the 1500m crown in 4:02.39 on the Saturday night and then less than 24 hours later, she won the 3000m by eight seconds from Türkiye’s Yasemin Can in 8:35.67 - her fourth race in three days.
After two near misses outdoors at the World Championships in London last August when she was fourth in the 1500m and sixth in the 5000m, Muir showed her brilliance on the boards again in winning 1500m silver and 3000m bronze in Birmingham.
Glasgow is staging the European Athletics Indoor Championships for the first time since 1990 when the Kelvin Hall hosted the event and as recent championships have proved, what noise there is when a home athlete triumphs.
In Prague, in 2015, the O2 Arena shook as the Czech Republic’s Jakub Holusa came through to win 1500m gold and then in Belgrade, Serbia’s long jumper superstar Ivana Spanovic raised the roof with her magnificent performance.
Muir has proved how she can handle the indoor tracks with her superb consistency and range, being the European indoor record-holder at 1000m (2:31.93) and 3000m (8:26.41).
Studying might be her top priority now, but Glasgow 2019 is never far from her mind.