Moments after a world 1500m final so brutal it could have carried an 18 certificate, Laura Moore threw herself onto the track, closed her eyes and began taking huge gulps of oxygen. She was still on the floor five minutes later—longer than the race itself—waiting for the fire in her lungs and legs to die down when a kindly official slipped a bronze medal around her neck. Then she began to smile.
She called it the hardest race of her life. But it was actually less of a race and more of a celebration between three of the greatest middle-distance runners in history. There was no room for subtleties or tactical subtleties during a race. Instead, it became an all-out gun-to-tape war: the 1,500-meter equivalent of Marvin Hagler vs. Tommy Hearns, featuring Ken Buchanan.
The pace was so incredibly high from the start that after 800m there were only three women left chasing a medal: double world champion Faith Kipiegon, world indoor champion Goodaf Tsegai and Muir. Everyone else’s dreams were shattered.
The three continued to slug it out until Kipyegon broke the spirits of her rivals with 200m to go to four plates of a fourth global title. The Kenyan’s time of 3 minutes 52:96 seconds was as breathtaking as the race itself.
Tsegai was able to take silver in 3.54:52 and Muir was third in 3.55:28 – her second fastest time. Amazingly, the fourth finisher, Freweyni Hailu, was six seconds and about 40 meters back. “Everything hurt,” Muir said. “The last 100 meters my legs were just burning. I felt like I couldn’t lift them, I was running in molasses. Everything was burning. Even walking around afterwards, Faith [and I] we were like, ‘We’re not good, this is not good, I can feel everything basically burning.’ But I knew if I got to the finish line, it would stop.”
What made Muir’s performance even more remarkable was that she was unable to run for two months this year after suffering a stress fracture in her right femur in February. “It was the worst injury I’ve had in my running career,” she said. “I couldn’t run for two months, two weeks on crutches. That was the longest I’ve gone without a run since I started.”
Laura Moore after crossing the finish line in Eugene. Photo: Andrei Isakovich/AFP/Getty Images
But she recovered. First in the pool and in the gym, then on anti-gravity treadmills and short runs on the grass. Gradually, a season that seemed like a write-off began to turn sunny side up. “We were lucky to catch it early,” she said. “We knew something was wrong. We have advanced imaging. If it was a fracture, I would have been out for a long, long time.”
The uncompromising mood of the race was set by the gun, with Tsegai charging forward like a Pamplona bull eyeing its first victim. But Muir had the brains to handle the break and the lungs to stay with it.
The first 400 meters flew by in an immeasurable haze – and when the stadium clock mistakenly flashed 55 seconds instead of the correct 58.05, there was a gasp. By then, two groups had already formed with two Ethiopians, Tsegai and Hirut Meshesha, along with Kipiegon and Muir in front.
By the 800m Meshesha was burnt out and the only question for Muir was the color of her medal. Not that she necessarily saw it that way. The 29-year-old had been stumped so many times before at major championships that she half expected disaster to strike again.
“I was so scared someone was going to pass me,” she said, recalling how in 2017 she came second on the final lap only to finish a heartbreaking fourth, beaten by Caster Semenya by 0.07. “I thought, ‘This is not going to happen again.’ I was going to give absolutely everything until I got to that line.
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“I was very, very tired. But that’s what you want to be, knowing you’ve given your absolute all. If I had made it to the final without giving it my all and lost, I would have been absolutely devastated.”
The taste was made even sweeter by the fact that her parents, Alison and Crawford, were there to see her win a world medal for the first time. They were due to debut indoors in Birmingham in 2018 before the Beast from the East struck, while last year’s planned trip to the Tokyo Olympics was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. No wonder Muir hugged them long and hard on his victory lap.
(Left to right) Laura Muir, Hirut Meshesha, Faith Kipiegon and Gudaf Tsegai. Photo: CJ Gunther/EPA
She now just needs a podium finish at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham next month to win medals at all the major championships. And she received welcome news afterwards when Kipiegon promised to skip it in favor of celebrating with her husband and daughter Aline.
“My daughter means everything to me,” said the Kenyan. “When I look at her every morning, I work hard and believe in myself. This morning I asked her if I should bring her chocolates or gold. She told me to bring the gold home, I am proud to give it to her.
But there was no one prouder at Hayward Field on Monday night than Muir, after a performance of stunning intensity and heart. Not that she’s done yet. “When I started my running career I wanted to study all six champions, I did that,” she said. “The goal then was to make it to the final of all six and I did. Now I want to win a medal in all six.”
And who would dare bet against her now?
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