On this day in 2017: Laura Muir and Richard Kilty win European gold in Belgrade
Laura Muir and Richard Kilty won gold for Great Britain with victories at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade on this day in 2017.
Muir completed the first part of her triumphant double gold mission by winning the women’s 1500 metres, clocking a championship record, British record and personal best of four minutes 2.39 seconds at the Kombank Arena to secure her first major crown.
Kilty then ran 6.54secs to defend his men’s 60m title after a tense beginning which had seen team-mate Andrew Robertson disqualified for a false start.
Muir was the favourite to triumph and dominated her race, winning by over two seconds, before going on to complete her dream double by claiming gold in the 3,000m the following day.
After her 1500m victory, the 23-year-old Scot said: “It has been a long time coming. It feels like the last few years, it’s slipped past. But now it’s a medal and I’m so happy.”
Muir, who beat Germany’s Konstanze Klosterhalfen and Poland’s Sofia Ennaoui into second and third, was almost denied her lap of honour when an official blocked her on the track, but she insisted she was not going to miss out.
“I had to fight for that, didn’t I? The lady said we didn’t have time but on my first medal I’m not going to lose out on my lap of honour,” she said.
Kilty won his heat and semi-final and was in imperious form in the final.
He dedicated his triumph to his son Richard and fellow sprinters James Ellington and Nigel Levine, who had been injured in a motorbike crash on a training camp in Tenerife in January 2017.
The 27-year-old from Teesside said: “I was feeling a little nervous and I was in the call room and I pulled out a photo of little Richard and I thought to myself, ‘No matter what happens here, I’m going to go home on Monday and he’s going to be smiling’.
“It made me feel so small and that it’s just another competition and it just took my nerves away. I did it for him, my family, James Ellington and Nigel Levine. There were a lot of emotions going on over the last couple of weeks.”