After a turbulent year, Great Britain team captain Laura Muir has found an even keel and is looking for more global medal success in Budapest Laura Muir has the speech written and the words rehearsed. Tales from a decade that’s taken her from Milnathort to all corners of the globe, and in the coming days, to Budapest for the sixth world athletics championships of her illustrious career. The 30-year-old was unveiled last night as the captain of the British team. A rallying call will be delivered but also insights shared that might help colleagues follow in her stead by bringing a medal home. “I just hope the stuff that I’ve learned over the years can be of use to the younger athletes – and even experienced athletes as well,” the Scot reflects. “Because there’s always going to be a new situation – you might have been in sport 20 years and there will still be things that come up that you’ve never experienced before. I think it’s just a really nice opportunity, at a nice time, to take this role and at a global championship as well. I’m very proud and very honoured to take up the position.” Over the past six months, Muir has absorbed more about herself than in the three preceding decades combined. About dealing with adversity but also casting aside. About how to fend for herself but to construct a new team from scratch. Tough days, painful decisions, tears but now, finally, joy. Ripping off the ties that bound the Dundee Hawkhill Harrier to her long-time coach Andy Young amid allegations of over-controlling behaviour left bruises and scars. They are not fully healed but the patient is well, and restored. “I’ve learned a lot,” she says. “And I think a lot that will do me a lot of good going forward, not just for my running career, but I think in my life as well.” The main thing? “Happiness is the secret to everything I think. If you’re a happy person, you’ll be a successful person. Just be happy. It sounds simple, but it’s so important.” Part of that comes from clarity, finally, about her future coaching set-up. Steve Vernon, UK Athletics’ head of endurance, is to fill the void, she reveals. It means his new charge is to quit Glasgow for the sport’s hub in Loughborough. A fresh start that will mean she is no longer walking alone. “There’s no reason why, on any race day, I couldn’t have run incredibly well,” she admits of her spell overseeing herself. “But mentally, it was taking its toll a couple of times. So just having that coach and having that reassurance has been really, really helpful. “And I’m in a very good mindset now, ahead of world championships. I’m just really excited for the rest of my career as well. I think I’ve discovered a lot of things that we can change, to get so much fitter and stronger.” Still, the Olympic silver medallist is not treading water. She will head into Saturday’s opening heats of the women’s 1500 metres with the intent to match, or best, her bronze from Eugene 12 months ago. No matter than she has not won on the circuit this summer. The British mile record she captured in Monaco last month offers reassurance. There is a new type of spring in her step. “I think about the championships which have gone before and how stressed and miserable I was,” she reflects. “And still I was able to produce. Regardless of how these championships go, it’s going to be a win.” Except she knows that a maiden global title will be immensely hard to achieve. In Kenya, they have christened Faith Kipyegon ‘Diesel’. “Because she can run and run,” a local told me. Billboards adorn the highways there saluting the double Olympic champion’s achievements. Redrawn in the wake of the three astonishing world records that the mother-of-one set within six weeks this summer: over 1500 and 5000 metres and the mile. Muir has trailed her home every time. Fuel for the fire, certainly. But she is an avowed admirer of the woman whose 1500m benchmark is now over five seconds quicker than her UK best. “She’s [Kipyegon] amazing,” Muir enthuses. “And amazing for the sport as well, not just for our event but in showcasing the sport of athletics as well. So it really is an honour to … I would say run alongside her but I’m not actually that close to her. But she’s amazing. And it’s just putting our event in the spotlight, which is fantastic.” Yet Kipyegon is an intimidating roadblock, not just for Muir but the in-form Northern Irishwoman Ciara Mageean – fresh from her own Irish record in Monaco – and the rest of this chasing pack. Gold will be hard to acquire. “When she’s there that makes that quite difficult. But it’s championship racing, it’s 1500 metre racing, so there’s still so much up in the air that you don’t know what’s going to happen. So never say never. “But if there’s going to be any favourite in the championships, I think she’s the one, out of all the events. It’s a privilege to run alongside her and it’s so nice to see her get those world records this year because that is what she was missing. And we all knew she was capable of it. It was just getting it getting it down there and she’s got three now. And I was in all three races too. Hopefully I can be on that that podium alongside her.”