British Indoor Champs preview

Thursday 9th February 2017

Steph Twell and Josephine Moultrie made it a Scottish 1-2 in the Women’s 3000m in Sheffield last year

A strong contingent of Scotish athletes will compete in Sheffield this weekend in the British Indoor Champs and European Trials.

Selection for GB and NI in Belgrade is up for grabs as well as podium places, making finals or delivering a PB when it counts.

The good news is that there will be coverage of the Sheffield action streamed live on the BBC Sport website on Saturday and Sunday with selected events also shown via Facebook live by British Athletics.

And while the likes of Laura Muir, Andy Butchart and Chris O’Hare are among those marked absent, there still look to be some significant medal hopes among the Scots.

Eilidh Doyle has opened the season very well in the 400m and will be looking to clinch her place at the Euros, after declining to compete indoors for a couple of years. Bakc in 2013, she won a European Indoors medal double in Sweden with 4 x 400m gold and 400m silver.

This weekend at the EIS Arena in Sheffield, Eilidh is joined on the 400m start-lists by the likes of Kirsten McAslan, Zoey Clark, Mhairi Patience and Jill Cherry.

Guy Learmonth and Ben Greenwood race in the men’s 800m with Emily Dudgeon and Mhairi Hendry in the women’s, with Jemma Reekie taking on the 1500m in Sheffield.

Guy Learmonth interview in the Sunday Herald

Heather Paton interview in the National

Allan Smith – claimed British Indoor title in 2015

High jumpers Allan Smith and David Smith have already shown fine form so far in 2017 – Allan leads the rankings with 2.26m alongside Chris Kandu – and will hopefully be in contention for the medals.

Sprint hurdler Heather Paton is another athlete in top form, too, after a Native Record (8.37) and a share of the National Record (8.34) in the 60m Hurdles in the past couple of weeks in Glasgow and Dublin respectively.

Eilish McColgan and Steph Twell could clash in an exciting 3000m showdown on Sunday afternoon. Eilish is also listed for the 1500m and has tweeted she is planning to race both events!

Other names noted on start-lists include Jamie Bowie, Jax Thoirs, Shaun Wyllie, Chloe Lambert, Jordan Charters, Carolyn Harvey and perhaps a few more besides (apologies if omissions).

Performance Director Rodger Harkins and Allan Scott, our Performance Foundation Coach and Manager, will be in Sheffield this weekend to assess performances, with the Commonwealth Games selection period of course already open.

All at scottishathletics would like to wish all Scottish athletes and coaches the best of luck this weekend in Sheffield as they seek to perform when it counts . . .