Scots ready for Euro Team Champs with GB

Thursday 22nd June 2017

Jake Wightman will pull on a British vest again this weekend at the European Team Championship in Lille.

The 1500m runner, a finalist in the European Champs in Holland last summer, was one of five Scots selected by British Athletes for the event, which takes place over three days in France – with the main individual finals on Saturday afternoon.

And Wightman is taking nothing for granted despite being highly-ranked in the athletes selected by various European nations and following on from that superb PB and Diamond League win in Oslo last week.

Jake clocked 3.34.17 in Norway and the opposition in France includes Poland’s Marcin Lewandowski and Germany’s Timo Benitz, who both have 3.34 runs against their name.

‘My phone went a bit mad last week after the Diamond League win but hopefully there are bigger things to come this summer,’ Jake told Athletics Weekly. ‘To be honest, the people around me have probably been getting more excited about it than me.

‘Just trying to run a PB was the main aim to start with, I just didn’t expect to do so in the way I did. Whenever you run a good race you never really remember how hard it was so in my head it didn’t feel like it was hard at all!

‘It is nice to know, on my day, I can beat some top athletes and hopefully in the next two weeks if everything goes well then I may have the chance to race them again at the Worlds.’

Lennie Waite in action for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games

The 1500m final is on Saturday afternoon with Eilidh Doyle having heats on Friday in the 400m Women’s Hurdles, with the final due on the Saturday, too.

Lennie Waite will race the 3000m steeplechase for GB as she looks to improve on a Season’s Best of 10.02.47. The World Champs qualifying standard is 9.42.00 and the Gold Coast 2018 qualifying is 9.50.00.

As Lennie tweeted after the selection: ‘Really looking forward to my fourth Euro Team Champs with British Athletics – one of my fave events.’

Eilidh, Kirsten McAslan and Zoey Clark were named with the 4 x 400m team for Lille, although we now understand that Clark may have to withdraw.

That may well open the door for a run for McAslan after a Season’s Best 52.90 in Switzerland recently with the Manchester-based Scot having a good record as a relay team members over the years with GB and NI.

Glasgow-based James Bowness, who trains with Bill Parker’s group, is the GB selection for the Men’s 800m in Lille.