Laura Muir and Jemma Reekie show GB’s middle-distance power at Stockholm Diamond League
Reekie won the 800m and Muir triumphed at 1500m as British athletes continued to lay down markers in an Olympic year
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Your support makes all the difference.Great Britain’s Jemma Reekie and Laura Muir enjoyed impressive victories in the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm.
Reekie, who will race over 1500m in the upcoming European Championships, won the 800m in a time of 1min 57.79s while Muir – who will not defend her European 1500m title in Rome – stormed to victory in 3:57.99.
“It was good to run a 1:57 from the front and know that I had another one in me,” said Reekie, who ran a season’s best of 1:57.34 when finishing third behind Keely Hodgkinson in Eugene on May 25.
“It probably felt too comfortable so my coach may watch it back and tell me I should have pushed it more. But it is a long season so there is plenty of time for more.
“We still have a long time until the Olympics and a month until trials so it is all about staying healthy and consistent.
“I am going to Rome to do the 1500m and I always start on any start line to win, but I know that those 1500m girls are going to make it tough for me so it would be amazing to run away with a medal.”
While Reekie won with a front-running performance, Muir was happy to track Ethiopia’s Birke Haylom behind the two pacemakers before striking for home inside the last 200m to win by almost a second from Kenya’s Edina Jebitok.
“I am pleased to get my best season-opener last week and then another solid performance tonight,” Muir said. “I have to bear in mind we are only at the start of June and it is all about August this year. That is when I need to be at my best.
“To be running what I am now and knowing that I have a couple more months of training before the Olympics is very exciting going forward.
“I am not doing Rome because of the championship format and lots of rounds plus it will be very hot. I want to put everything I have into the Olympics.”
Former world 1500m champion Jake Wightman could only finish eighth in a fast-paced 800m won by Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati, with British team-mates Ben Pattison fourth and Elliot Giles sixth.
Amy Hunt finished third in the women’s 200m won by world champion Shericka Jackson in a season’s best of 22.69s, while home favourite Mondo Duplantis narrowly failed with three attempts at extending his pole vault world record to 6.25m.
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