Para Scots head for Coventry; Sarah 10,000m hope; Robbie hills

Thursday 22nd April 2021

Luke Deighan and Ben Rowlings competing at Meadowmill last summer (photo by Bobby Gavin)

British Athletics selection policies 2021

A strong cohort of Scottish Para athletes are set to compete again this weekend in Coventry.

British Athletic are hosting two days of events as they look towards selection for the WPA Europeans being held in Bydgoszcz in Poland later this summer.

Invited athletes have exemptions to travel to the competition and a number of Scots have accepted and will look to savour a competition opportunity after extremely limited action over the past 13 months or so.

Depending on the event and the classification, there are possibilities to post performances which will help towards selection for the Europeans, Paralympics and the Commonwealth Games in 2022.

Good luck to the following athletes, and their coaches, this weekend:

Libby Clegg, Sammi Kinghorn, Stef Reid, Melanie Woods, Kayleigh Haggo, Alexander Thomson, Ross Paterson, Kirsty Soutar, Hannah Dines, Steven Stone, Sean Frame, Freya Howgate, Kyle Brotherton, Ben Rowlings, Luke Deighan

+++

Kew Gardens photo by Mark Shearman 

Great Scot! Steph Davis wins race to the Olympics

Marathon runner Sarah Inglis will turn her attention to the 10,000m as she bids for Olympic selection.

The Canada-based Scot missed out at Kew Gardens in London when she finished sixth in the trials race staged by British Athletics and won on the day by Steph Davis.

Now Sarah will look to try and get inside the 31.39.40 qualifying standard for the track event – hopefully via an event in Canada as issues around her work, travelling and Covid mean she won’t be able to compete at the 10,000m trials in Birmingham on June 5.

‘Unfortunately coming back to the UK for the trials isn’t an option for me because of work commitments and the quarantine rules,’ said Sarah, coached in Langley by Mark Bomba.

‘We are looking to get a 10,000m race here in Vancouver and I will try and have a go at the qualifying time.’

Sarah’s 10,000m PB is 32:11 but that was a couple of years ago prior to significant improvement over longer distances.

+++

Robbie at the GB Olympic marathon trials in London (photo by Mark Shearman)

Press and Journal coverage

GB and NI mountain running international Robbie Simpson is delighted to hear the 2021 Lairig Ghru race is to go ahead on June 27 and is keen to defend his title.

Despite inadvertently veering off the trail in the early stages of last year’s race, the Banchory athlete recovered to win, completing the 43k route between Braemar and Aviemore in 3hr 3min 24sec.

That was a little outside the course record of 2:58:10 set by Murray Strain (Hunters Bog Trotters) in 2017.

Simpson, who also plans to tackle the Cairngorm 62k ultra on June 5, would normally be racing in Europe in the early summer but continuing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic led to him reviewing the situation.

With thanks to Fraser Clyne

+++

Tags: Para athletics, Robbie Simpson, Sarah Inglis, WPA European Champs