Laura Muir will head to next month's European Championships in excellent form after recording a season's best 1500m time to take Diamond League silver in Lausanne.
The 25-year-old runner was pipped to the line on the home straight by USA’s Shelby Houlihan but held off the challenge of the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan in a highly-competitive field.
There were also season’s bests for fellow Brits Laura Weightman (4:01.76) and Eilish McColgan (4:01.98) as they finished seventh and eighth respectively, while Melissa Courtney finished tenth.
The season’s best times for Muir, Weightman and McColgan mean that three British women ran under 4:02.00 for the first time.
Muir recorded a time of 3:58.18 and the result means the British runner earns seven Diamond League points to sit atop the women’s 1500m standings.
“I knew it was going to be a fast race that the girls had asked for,” said Muir, who kicked with 250m to go. “I was happy to sit in on the first half, work hard and use my strength in the second half.
“I felt a lot better than I did in the race a couple of weeks ago so it’s a step in the right direction.
“I could see Tsegay (Gudaf) was tiring so I thought I had to go at that stage and not leave it to a sprint finish. I just wanted to run as far as I could. I nearly got the win so I’m really pleased with that.”
Muir aims to run both the 800m and 1500m at August’s European Championships in Berlin and her Lausanne run confirms her form at both distances after the Scot took the 800m title at the British Championships last week.
Elsewhere in Lausanne, Jodie Williams missed the podium by a whisker as she finished fourth in the women’s 200m, just one hundredth of a second behind third-placed Shericka Jackson of Jamaica.
Lynsey Sharp ran to a season’s best 2:01.02 in the women’s 800m as she finished eighth, while Jack Green took seventh in the men’s 400m hurdles.
In the field, Shara Procter claimed four Diamond League points with a fifth-place finish in the women’s long jump, while Lorraine Ugen jumped 6.48m to finish seventh. Sportsbeat 2018