New Balance Indoor Grand Prix – News – Will Another Fearsome Attack By Muir Bring Victory At New Balance Indoor Grand Prix

WILL ANOTHER FEARSOME ATTACK BY MUIR BRING VICTORY AT NEW BALANCE INDOOR GRAND PRIX?
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2023 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved – Used with permission.

BOSTON (03-Feb) — Last September, Laura Muir stormed away from the field before the halfway point at the New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile in New York.  Her attack was so sudden and so powerful that there was no time for her opponents to react.  The 29 year-old Scotswoman did not let up and amassed such a big lead that she won by three seconds –a huge margin in such an elite event– in a race record of 4:14.4.

“With the (rainy) conditions, I wasn’t thinking about times at all,” an exhausted Muir told Race Results Weekly that day.  “I didn’t realize it was that fast; I didn’t actually look up at the clock when I crossed the line.  I would have been disappointed, but the main thing was for me to win today, and I was just so chuffed that I could do that.”

And winning is what Muir does best, especially after using the kind of explosive move she employed to claim victory on Fifth Avenue.  Over her 12 years in athletics, she has taken her natural instinct to attack and improved its use as she has gotten stronger and faster under the coaching of Andy Young.  In New York, she went right to the edge of what her body was capable of after a long track season where she medaled in three major championships.

“It was successful, but that was on the edge,” Muir said at a press conference here today ahead of tomorrow’s New Balance Indoor Grand Prix where she will compete at the 3000m, her first-ever indoor race in the United States.  “Yeah, I went very hard at the halfway point.  I ran very, very fast and I was happy with it, especially for my last race of the season.  That was close to going from the start line, that was on the limit.  Maybe it was a little bit mis-timed.”

But the kind of hard training Muir does with her training partner, Jemma Reekie, has given her the power, fitness, and confidence to execute those kinds of moves.  At last August’s European Athletics Championships 1500m final in Münich, Muir did the same thing, striking about 25 meters before the bell and winning by more than two seconds.  She smashed the last lap in 60.4 seconds (4:03 mile pace).

“It’s certainly something I’ve learned,” Muir told reporters today.  “There’s definitely been times I’ve attacked in a race and it’s not gone well.”  She continued: “I think it’s just a testament to my training, and how…