29th November 2012

Three-time Olympian and Glasgow girl Lee McConnell (coach: Rodger Harkins) will run over 200m at the British Athletics International Match on Saturday 26 January. Running for the Commonwealth Select team, McConnell will star in the first international athletics event to be held at the new state of the art 5,000 seat Emirates Arena.

400m specialist McConnell, one of Scotland’s most decorated athletes of recent times with World, European and Commonwealth medals to her name, will use her vast experience as the Commonwealth side take on four countries in the unique annual format previously held at Kelvin Hall. Russia, Germany, the USA and a Great British team will also go head-to-head as points are awarded according to athlete placings across every event on the afternoon.

The 34 year-old will be taking part in the world-class Glasgow event for the first time since 2006, and is looking forward to the occasion.

She said: “I’m excited about competing in such a fantastic new facility in my home town. It will be the first time a world-class athletics meeting has been held in the arena so I’m sure it will be a great event and hopefully I can perform well and get my year off to a good start.”

The 2012 Olympic 400m semi-finalist has enjoyed a successful track record on the international stage, including winning individual 400m silver at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and bronze in the 400m hurdles in Melbourne four years later. McConnell also boasts six 4x400m relay medals on the European and World stage and is looking forward to her next challenge in Glasgow.

“It was incredible to be part of a home Olympics and the support from everybody was amazing. Running in London gave me a taste of what it would be like to compete in front of a crowd in Glasgow at the Commonwealth Games. Hopefully the British Athletics International Match will be a good first step for me on the road to 2014.”

Despite being known in the athletics world for her performances over 400m, McConnell is confident of doing herself justice over the shorter distance when world-class athletics returns to Glasgow on 26 January. 

“I actually started out as a 200m sprinter in my early years and had a good run over the distance indoors in 2011, so it’s not something new to me. My coach and I think that it will be good to work on that sprint speed this indoor season and it will be a nice challenge to go up against some really fast girls on January 26^th.”