Laura Muir breaks European 3,000m record

Laura Muir's time surpassed Liz McColgans 28-year-old Scottish best. Picture: John Devlin

Freshly returned from a three-week training stint in South Africa, the 23-year-old was left in a two-way battle with Olympic silver medallist Hellen Obiri heading into the last lap. Muir, who broke the UK 5,000m record in Glasgow four weeks ago exploded off the final bend to win in 8:26.41 – the fifth-quickest mark of all time.

“It was pretty spectacular,” said her coach Andy Muir. “Obiri got a Kenyan record too so it was one of the greatest distance races of all-time.”

The mark, which surpassed Liz McColgan’s 28-year-old Scottish best, underlines Muir’s tag as a red-hot bet for a maiden major championship title at next month’s European Indoors in Belgrade where she is set to take on a 1,500-3,000m double.

Also in Karlsruhe, Guy Learmonth lowered his 800m indoor personal best for the second time in a week, coming third behind the USA’s Erik Sowinksi in 1:47.04.European 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith equalled the 60m world-lead of 7.14 in the heats before coming second to Jamaica’s Gayon Evans in the final while Andy Pozzi clocked a world-lead of 7.44 to win the 60m hurdles final.

Andy Butchart won the mile at the Armory Meeting in New York with a personal best of 3:54.23. Lynsey Sharp was fourth in the 600m behind US rival Ajee Wilson.

Eilidh Doyle maintained her unbeaten start to 2017 by winning the 400m in Mondeville in 53.3 secs.