Manchester-bound! Strong Scottish cohort heads for Muller British Champs

Thursday 23rd June 2022

This was superb head-to-head in Manchester last year as Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman went 1-2 in the 1500m final (photo by Getty Images for British Athletics)

Manchester start-lists

Scottish athletes head for the Muller British Champs in Manchester this weekend with hopes high for a strong performances and a significant medal haul after a great start to the 22 outdoor season..

The event doubles up as the trials for the World Champs in Eugene, of course, with a dozen or so of our elite athlete hopeful of securing GB and NI selection.

And Manchester also represents one of the final competition opportunities for many en route to the Commonwealth Games with Team Scotland – with key battles with Home Nation rivals this weekened likely to then be repeated at Birmingham 2022.

Just as importantly for a number of younger Scots there is the chance to gain important experience at British Championship level to see if they can progress through a round by delivering a Personal Best or Season Best performance.

Para events are integrated into the programme over the weekend with Scottish athletes set to compete there, too.

Event timetable

All the early indications this year are that our cohort will head into competition in good heart after a series of very strong performances.

We make it over 20 Scottish National Records broken (indoors and outdoors) at Senior level so far in 2022.

And there was a recent purple path fortnight which saw five National Records broken in quick succession.

Chris Bennett took silver at the 2021 British Champs and will be looking to throw big again this time (photo by Getty Images for British Athletics)

‘It’s been a great start to the season for Scottish athletes,’ said Laura Muir, who will be chasing yet another British title this weekend at 1500m.

‘If you look at performances across the board then 2022 has been awesome already. There are good signs for Team Scotland and the Commonwealths.

‘In endurance in particular we’ve been filling slots on the GB and NI teams for major events so hopefully that continues this year, too.’

The Scottish medal tally reached no fewer than 14 at the 2021 British Champs and that repeated the kind of level achieved in the years immediately prior to Covid.

All the event details are available from the link above to the British Athletics information and the timetable starts on Friday afternoon with further action on Saturday and Sunday.