Laura Muir happy with PB after missing out on mile record
The 24-year-old was second in the mile race at the Anniversary Games on Sunday and fell just short of Budd’s British record.
She finished behind Kenya’s Hellen Obiri in four minutes and 18.03 seconds - a personal best for the distance - at the London Stadium.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdBudd’s record, which she set in Switzerland in 1985, stands at four minutes and 17.57 seconds but Muir was content with her race, especially after recovering from a stress fracture in her foot.
She said: “I’m disappointed not to get the record but I’m happy with the time. It’s still a PB for me. I just took it on and the legs were a bit tired in the last 100 metres but considering the races I’ve put together in the last few days I’m pretty happy.
“It’s hard, you have to physically push yourself as hard as you can. I wanted to be at the front and set the pace. I may have paid for it in the last 100 metres but I did the best I could.
“I don’t know if I see it as pressure (the expectation to win). I see it as support. A few years ago I would have struggled with it but I’m recognising I see it as support and people are looking towards me because I’m doing well and hoping I do well at the World Championships.”
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdMuir had two weeks off last month as she recovered from a stress fracture in her foot but she insisted the injury was behind her.
“It’s always going to be a little bit in the back of your mind but certainly training has been going really well. I have to be positive,” added Muir.
After Muir, Sir Mo Farah won the 3000m in one of his last races at the London Stadium, where he won his first two Olympic gold medals in 2012.
Farah will retire from the track to focus on road racing after next month’s World Championships in London.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHe said: “I’ve been in this situation with the experience of 2012, it’s a different feeling and I’m getting a bit more nervous in terms of ‘this is it’ but other than that it’s normal.
“It’s going alright, ticking boxes, working hard and grafting - in the last five years nothing has changed.
“This is home, this is where my life changed and where I made my name. If I didn’t do it on this track I wouldn’t matter, would I?”
Earlier, race walker Tom Bosworth broke the 26-year-old world record in the mile after crossing the line in 5:31:08.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHe said: “The aim was to set off at world record pace, but I didn’t think I was capable of getting it! With about 500m I thought ‘is the maths wrong, is that happening?’
“I had to focus on my technique and really get a grip of myself, but I’m absolutely delighted.”
CJ Ujah won the men’s 100m sprint and equalled his season’s best of 10.02 seconds which could take him to next month’s World Championships and Chris O’Hara took the men’s 1500m race.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson finished last in the 100m hurdles heats and was fourth in the long jump with a season’s best of 6.75 metres.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdMeanwhile, Team GB’s men’s 4x400 metres relay team from Beijing 2008 received their overdue Olympic bronze medals in a special ceremony.
Michael Bingham, Martyn Rooney, Andrew Steele and Robert Tobin were upgraded from fourth to third after the International Olympic Committee retested urine samples from the Games and retrospectively caught Russian athlete Denis Alekseyev using a prohibited substance.