The 59th Ostrava Golden Spike athletics meet is another gold-label stop on the World Athletics Continental Tour. It is happening Tuesday, September 9 in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
Scot, Laura Muir, who has gone three for three recently in the 1500-metre event will now opt for the 800-metre distance on Tuesday.
Her best over 1500m is 3:55.22, which is a British and Scottish record. She set it in Paris in 2016. In 2020, she has run as fast as 3:57.86 three weeks ago in Stockholm, Sweden.

On August 1, she ran the 800m in 1:59.54 in Italy. Her best at that distance is a very strong 1:58.42. The national record is held by Lynsey Sharp at 1:57.69 from her run in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Muir has the goods
The 27-year-old Muir also owns the British 1000m record and the Scottish mile record. She also owns European indoor records over 1000m and 3000m.
Muir will be up against Habitam Alemu from Ethiopia who has a personal best of 1:56.71 to her credit from Monaco two years ago. This season, she appears to have only run the distance once in Marseille, France and finished with a 2:02.51. Her 1500m three days later was also off the mark in Chorzow, Poland with her 4:08.23 performance. Perhaps the coronavirus has kept her from training. The question is whether the superior Muir will bring out the elite runner in Alemu?
Ireland’s Ciara Mageen may have something to say about that. She set a personal and national record in July in the 800m going 1:59.69 in Bern, SUI.
Three weeks later, she set a national record in the 1000m in Monaco with her 2:31.06 performance.
Expect the race to be close for at least 650m.
Women’s 1500m – Faith Kipyegon’s for the taking
Kenyan Faith Kipyegon, the Olympic 1500m champion, will toe the line in the 1500m event in Ostrava. She won the 1,000m event in Monaco and Brussels Diamond League meets In August. She set a national 1000m record in Monaco with a 2:29.15 performance.
Her personal best over the metric mile is 3:54.22, which she set at the 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships — it is also a national record.
Three Brits will be racing including Scot, Eilish McColgan, Laura Weightman and Jemma Reekie. Weightman has had the best 2020 of the three so far with her 4:01.62 from Stockholm. Her all-time best is 4:00.17 from Paris 2014.
Kipyegon will also have to contend with Ugandan national record holder Winnie Nanyondo if she is in good shape. She has run as fast as 3:59.56 in 2019. However, the last time she raced was in February in an indoor race. She finished at 4:06.13.
Women’s 5000m – featuring Sifan Hassan
Leading the way in the 5000m event is Dutch athlete Sifan Hassan. She owns a personal best of 14:22.12, which is a national record. She will be difficult to beat, however, may not have as big of a kick as she is known for, having just taken the world one-hour distance record. She also owns world records in the one mile (4:12.33), 5K road (14:44) and 11 national records including three from indoors.
She ran 18.930 kilometres at the Brussels Diamond League during the one-hour race.
Tsehay Gemechu, a 21-year-old phenom from Ethiopia may be hot on her heels. Gemechu has run as fast as 14:29.60 from the 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships, which earned her a 4th place finish.
It has been a couple of years since Yasmin Can run her 14:36.82 in Rome, Italy, but the 23-year-old has the goods having also raced the 10,000m in 30:26.41 in the Rio Olympics earning the then 19-year-old a seventh-place finish.
Also, on the slate are 150m, 300m hurdles, 400m hurdles and various field events including discus, high jump, pole vault and javelin.
Full details are available here>>