By Alex Castle
SAN MATEO, Calif. — Earlier this year, two-time 1,500-meter Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Coe said that there was “no question” Britain’s Laura Muir could bring home the gold in 2020 after winning double gold medals at the European indoor championships in the 1,500 and 3,000 meters.
With the 2019 Prefontaine Classic set to be “the best-ever one-day display of women’s distance running in U.S. history,” according to meet director Tom Jordan, the reigning Diamond League champion will get her chance to show the rest of the world she can too at Stanford’s Cobb Track and Angell Field on Sunday.
“It will be good to see where I’m at,” Muir said at Saturday’s pre-meet press conference. “I’m just going to try and race the best I can, and hopefully I cross that line in first place.”
The race marks just the second time that Muir, Faith Kipyegon and Shelby Houlihan will each compete in the same event. Kipyegon, the 2016 Olympic gold medalist and 2017 world champion, took the group’s first meeting at the 2017 Pre Classic. Muir finished third that day, while Houlihan took 11th.
But this time around, Kipyegon, who set the meet record of 3 minutes, 56.41 seconds in 2016 and is returning from a 21-month maternity break, is far from a sure bet. Muir holds the British record and the second-fastest time since the turn of the century at 3:55.16. Houlihan returns as the meet’s champion after improving her personal record by four seconds and out-kicking Muir by 0.24 at the 2018 Pre Classic.
Despite the prominent field, Muir is the only of the three that has run the 1,500 meters this year and said she isn’t giving much thought to her competitors.
“In a sense, they knew where I’m at, I’ve raced already,” she said. “Neither of them has, so I’m not sure what form they’re in. I know I’m in great shape, so I just have to use that, and know how well I can run a race.”
When asked by Jordan at Saturday’s press conference to reflect on her favorite memory of her impressive performance at the European indoors, Muir noted how nice it was to share it with her friends and family in her home country of Scotland.
While she isn’t surrounded by those friends and family at this year’s Pre Classic, which was relocated to Stanford while Eugene’s Hayward Field is being rebuilt, Muir is keeping herself loose by taking advantage of her first trip to the Bay Area.
After arriving a couple weeks ago to begin training for the event, the British runner has used her days off to visit attractions like San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and Knott’s Berry Farm in Orange County.
“It’s lovely—it’s really nice weather, which is great,” Muir said. “It’s really nice to come to a new place, and I’m really enjoying it so far.”
In 2018, Muir coupled her success on the track with completing her life-long aspiration of becoming a veterinary surgeon. The achievement took tedious effort to balance her training and competing with studying and passing exams. Though she said she’s wanted to begin volunteering and doing charity work with her new degree, Muir doesn’t even have time to care for a dog of her own. She has put all her focus on her goals of a world championship and an Olympic medal.
“It’s definitely been nice having a little bit more time,” she said.
That time has been put into adjusting her training to an elongated competitive schedule because it’s so hot in Doha, Qatar, that the 2019 world championships aren’t being held until Sept. 28 to Oct. 6. So far, Muir said, it’s been paying off.
“It’s the fastest I’ve felt at this point in the year,” she said. “It’s all about not losing form over the summer and maintaining and building.”
With the defending Olympic, world and meet champions lining up next to her, Sunday’s Pre Classic is ripe for Muir to find a launching point not just into Doha, but into the next 15 months that will culminate at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
