20 January 2009 

Twelve athletes who represented Team GB at the Beijing Olympic Games have been named in the Aviva Great Britain & Northern Ireland Team that will face USA, Sweden, Germany and a Commonwealth Select at the Aviva International at Kelvin Hall, Glasgow on 31^st January.

Selectors have also named a young team. Twelve of the seventeen athletes selected are aged 25 or under. 22-year-old Steve Lewis (Newham & Essex) has been named in the pole vault following a superb new PB of 5.75m achieved in Manchester last weekend. The mark puts him in joint 2^nd on the IAAF indoor world ranking list thus far this winter.

2007 European Junior 200m gold medallist Hayley Jones (Wigan AC), 20, had a injury-hit 2008, but has bounced back this indoor season with a 60m/200m double at last weekend’s Northern Indoor Championships in Sheffield. Glasgow will mark her first senior GB & NI vest.

The Glasgow match will begin in earnest the build up to March’s European Indoor Championships in Turin, Italy. The championships were last held in Birmingham in 2007, where GB & NI topped the medal with ten medals.

Amongst the medallists on that occasion were Craig Pickering (Marshall Milton Keynes) who won silver in the 60m, behind GB & NI team-mate Jason Gardener and Kelly Sotherton (Birchfield Harriers) who won silver behind Sweden’s Carolina Kluft in the women’s pentathlon. Both Pickering and Sotherton will compete in Glasgow, Pickering in the men’s 60m and Sotherton in the women’s long jump and 60m hurdles.

Tickets for the Aviva International Match at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow on Saturday 31st January are available by phone on 08000 556 056 or online at www.ukathletics.net

AVIVA GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND TEAM

MEN

60m: Craig Pickering (Marshall Milton Keynes); 200m: Leon Baptiste (Enfield & Haringey) 400m: Richard Buck (City of York) 800m: Joe Thomas(Cardiff AAC); 3000m: Mo Farah (Newham & Essex); 60m hurdles: Andy Turner(Sale Harriers) High Jump: Tom Parsons (Birchfield Harriers); Pole Vault: Steve Lewis (Newham & Essex); Long Jump: Greg Rutherford (Marshall Milton Keynes)

WOMEN

60m: Montell Douglas (Blackheath & Bromley); 200m: Hayley Jones (Wigan AC); 400m: Kim Wall(Basildon AC) 800m: Marilyn Okoro (Shaftesbury Barnet); 1500m: Susan Scott (Victoria Park City of Glasgow); 3000m: Helen Clitheroe (Preston Harriers); 60m hurdles: Sarah Claxton (Woodford Green & Essex Ladies) Long Jump: Kelly Sotherton (Birchfield Harriers)

BRITISH ATHLETES SELECTED FOR COMMONWEALTH SELECT*

MEN

High Jump: Martyn Bernard (Wakefield Harriers); Pole Vault: Luke Cutts (City of Sheffield)

WOMEN

800m: Jenny Meadows (Wigan AC); 1500m: Katrina Wootton (Bedford & County)

CONFIRMED BRITISH GUEST APPEARANCES

MEN

60m: Nick Smith (Shaftesbury Barnet); 60m Hurdles: Allan Scott (Shaftesbury Barnet)

WOMEN

60m Hurdles: Kelly Sotherton (Birchfield Harriers)

*Full Commonwealth Select Team to be announced in coming days