Laura Muir ran one of her greatest races to end Britain’s medal drought at these World Athletics Championships.
The fearless Scot had said she was ready for the mother of all scraps in the women’s 1500 metres final. And as the sun set on the fourth day of competition she buried herself in a battle royal with the pride of Africa.
The result was Kenyan star Faith Kipyegon winning a second world title ahead of Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, with Muir third in three minutes 55.28 seconds. But that does scant justice to the scale of performance put in by the trio who blasted out of the blocks, quickly ran away from all but one of the field and crossed the line fully six seconds clear.
“I’m so so happy,” said the 29-year-old. "This time last year I didn’t have any global outdoor medals and now I’ve got two - and I’ve got a bronze against two of the greatest 1500 runners of all time.
“If I’d run those splits a few years ago I would have died; that would have been me off the back. You saw that in Rio [2016 Olympics].
“It shows how much I’ve grown physically that I am able to cope with that now. It’s a great credit to my coach, Andy, we’ve worked on that over the years and we know how to get me fitter so I can deal with those situations in races.
“And now I can cope with those races and win a medal.”
A dramatic day in Eugene saw 100m champ Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce qualify from the 200m heats only after making a desperate grab for her electric blue wig to stop it coming off during her race.
On the same stretch of track a major accident was narrowly averted when a cameraman, covering the triple jump, stepped backwards into the path of 3,000m steeplechasers who somehow avoided being scattered like skittles.
But the true athletics drama was reserved for Muir’s race as she clung to the coat tails of her rivals as they reached 400m in 58.82secs.
A notable breeze had been factored into the Scot’s gameplan and she cleverly ‘drafted’ behind the pace-setters, preserving energy for the lung-busting finale.
They reached the halfway point in 2:03.22 at which point Ethiopia’s Hirut Meshesha could no longer live with the breakneck speed. Deeper Muir dug into her reserves, refusing to concede an inch.
She had been on crutches in February, unable to train fully for six weeks due to a leg injury. Back then the prospect of a day like this seemed remote indeed.
“Everything hurt,” she said, when asked later how it felt in the heat of battle. “That last 100, my legs were just on fire. I feel like I couldn’t lift them, I was running in treacle. Everything was burning.”
As in Tokyo a year ago, Muir feared she would be overhauled on the run-in but like that game-changing day in Japan, she held firm.
