History for the individual and a record haul of 12 medals for the collective. How unexpected on that latter front and how marvellously predictable on the former, such is the world-class talent in the legs and lungs of Laura Muir.
Making a formality of continental-level competition really is something, but it is quite something else to win by the monumental margins that she managed on her way to two golds in the space of three days on her home track.
The second of those was achieved with a three-second cushion Sunday night, giving her a successful defence of the 1500metres title she won in Belgrade two years ago.
Britain's Laura Muir managed to get two golds in the space of three days on her home track
The world-class talent in the legs and lungs of Laura Muir saw her win by monumental margins
In truth, no one doubted she would get that particular job done — if there was any difficulty to her championships, it was the challenge of Konstanze Klosterhalfen in defending her 3,000m gold on Friday and the fitness requirement of four races across two distances in a long weekend.
But she battered Klosterhalfen and then brutalised the 1500m field, beating Poland’s Sofia Ennaoui with a relatively casual time of 4min 5.92sec to defend her other title from Belgrade.
A double-double, they call it, and the achievement is best defined by knowing no one else, male or female, has previously done one in the 49-year history of the event. That is how good she is, even if it is necessary to note that her distances at world and Olympic level carry the deepest talent pools of any discipline, and by comparison she only faced modest opposition here.
Modest, yes, but not weak. And in any case, her body of work identifies her as among the very best in the world, with four European Indoor golds, two World Indoor medals, one European outdoor gold and two Diamond League crowns. She ought to fear no one in this World Championships year.
Whether her scrutinised running spikes gave her an advantage is unknown at this point. As of Sunday, the IAAF said they had received no complaints about them, and in any case
