Emirates stage set for 4J Senior and U17 Champs

Friday 24th January 2020

Nikki Manson has made a strong start to 2020 (photo by Bobby Gavin)

Regular British championship medallist Guy Learmonth is among the GB internationals who head the cast-list for the 4J Studios National Indoor Senior and U17 Championships.

And there could be an exciting head-to-head in the Women’s High Jump with GB duo Nikki Manson and Emma Nuttall both entered and having made good starts to their indoor seasons.

It’s at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow on Sunday and we’d urge the athletics community in Scotland to support this event by coming along or watching online.

Our partners at Vinco are streaming the full event online on www.runjumpthrow.com and there will also be coverage on the BBC Scotland Sport website for part of Sunday.

It is one of the highlights of the 4J Studios Indoor Season and we’re thrilled to have more than 600 athletes involved in the two age categories.

Start-lists and timetable for Sunday are now online on our Events section page. This link will become Live Results once the action starts on Sunday.

Start-lists and Timetable

‘I want to win Triple Jump gold’ – Chuxx Onyia

Adam Thomas is already high on the Scottish all-time lists and the sprinter who competed at the World Student Games in Italy last summer looks favourite for the men’s 60m.

GB international and regular age group medallist, Alisha Rees, races in the Women’s 60m as she looks to start 2020 in good form.

The men’s 400m field looks highly competitive with GB international Grant Plenderleith, GB U20 international Billy Doyle and Scotland international Kyle Alexander under threat for podium places from two English athletes as well as top seed, Joseph Brier of Swansea (46.66).

In the women’s 400m, expect to see the likes of Stacey Downie, Kelsey Stewart and Megan Davies firmly in contention for medals.

Learmonth has entered both the 400m and the 800m and it remains to be seen which start-line is in Guy’s plans. The women’s 800m could feature Philippa Millage, Hannah Cameron and Mhairi Hendry.

Still on the track, both 1500m fields look likely to deliver competitive finals.

Stephen Mackay leads the men’s seedings from Michael Ferguson, while the women’s field has a top five of Erin Wallace, Kerry Macangus, Jenny Selman, Eloise Walker and Sarah Calvert.

Erin, Eloise and Sarah all have GB age group experience in recent seasons at various distances outdoors.

PB performances . . . how we reported the Senior Men’s long jump in PB magazine last year

The men’s long jump delivered some great action last year when Alessandro Schenini and Stephen Mackenzie went head-to-head – Alessandro winning with 7.52m to Stephen’s 7.51m.

This year, they are joined by Che Richards and in fact there are nine men on the start-list with PBs over 7.40m.

In the women’s jump events, we expect to see Sarah Warnock, Ellie O’Hara, Nony Mordi, Nikki Manson, Emma Nuttall, Carmen Neat and Carolyn Harvey in contention. Jax Thoirs and Hannah Lawler are the top seeds in the pole vault.

Over at the shot circle, Commonwealth discus thrower Angus McInroy will face a tough challenge from Irish thrower James Kelly while in the Women’s event Mhairi Porterfield will have to overcome stiff competition from Gateshead Harrier Sophie Littermore and talented youngster Teddy Tchoudja to retain her title from last year.

That’s us only looking at the Senior event, of course. There are a host of talented teenagers set to compete at U17 level and this is an age group in the past 18 months or so where national records have fallen on a regular basis.

One or two of those athletes have moved up to U20 level so it will be interesting to see the ‘next wave’ of U17s coming through.