Laura Muir shrugs off the cold to turn up heat in Oregon

Little fazes Laura Muir, neither foe nor furry animal. And the Scot shook off illness and jetlag to land a second place on her Diamond League return in Oregon which was an avowed statement of intent for the season ahead.

Laura Muir finished second after a late surge. Picture: SNS.

Four days after formally passing her veterinary degree, the 25-year-old saved the best of her summer debut until last by bolting from seventh at the start of the final lap of the 1,500 metres of the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene.

Muir’s now familiar determined surge over the closing strides left her a mere 24-hundredths of a second behind unheralded American Shelby Houlihan, who won in a world leading time of 3:59.06.

However, Muir’s coach Andy Young revealed: “Laura got to LA, got a sore throat and a cold, had to take more time off and couldn’t do a track session. She’s still sounding 
bunged up.”

Freed from the distraction of studies and internships, Muir will now fly back to Europe to continue her build-up towards chasing the European title in Berlin in August. “I’ll run Stockholm and Oslo and then do some altitude training before the British Championships,” she said.

Elsewhere in Oregon, Reece Prescod underlined his impressive form by running the second fastest 100 metres in British history with his time of 9.88 seconds – which was just outside the allowable wind limit – only one-hundredth short of Linford Christie’s best set 25 years ago. Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake was fifth in the 200m.

Meanwhile, Mark Dry admitted he wants the wrangle over who pays for expensive hip surgery to be speedily sorted after he slumped to 11th place in the hammer at the Halle International.

The Commonwealth Games bronze medalist could manage a best of only 70.04 metres and now wants to go under the knife as soon as possible, even though it will bring his season to an end.

“It is just hard,” said Dry, who saw Poland’s Pawel Fajdek set a world-lead of 80.70m with victory. “I’m just missing a few gears. I need a rest and to get this op done. I just don’t have the power in my leg.”

Chris O’Hare bounced back from his Gold Coast disappointment to secure the British mile title in 4:03 at yesterday’s Vitality Westminster Mile with Jake Wightman fifth. Melissa Courtney landed the women’s title.

European junior champion Jemma Reekie lowered her personal best to 4:10.10 in coming second in the 1500m behind European senior medalist Ciara Mageean at the BMC Grand Prix in Watford with Erin Wallace fourth. Kirsten McAslan kept up her promising switch to the 400m hurdles with third place at the IFAM meeting in Oordegem in 58.21 secs.