20 January 2014

British Athletics and Scottish Athletics today announced the full Scotland team for the Sainsbury’s Glasgow International Match on Saturday 25 January, which will be led by world 4x400m bronze medallist Eilidh Child (coach: Malcolm Arnold).  

Child will mark history, as she captains the first ever Scotland team at the event where they will go head-to-head with GB & NI, USA and a Commonwealth Select team. The 26 year old will be joined by fellow Moscow teammate and European U23 bronze medallist Laura Muir (Andy Young) in the 800m where she will line up against compatriot Claire Gibson (Derek Parker), who will run for the Commonwealth Select.

Fresh from recording the second-fastest Scottish men’s indoor 400m of all time on Saturday at the Emirates Arena, Jamie Bowie (Piotr Haczek) will look to continue his strong start to the season, as the 24 year old doubles up in the 400m and 4x400m. Bowie, who took over half a second off his previous personal best, clocking a time of 47.09 will want to get the better of eight-time global medallist Chris Brown and Moscow semi-finalist Nigel Levine (Linford Christie).

Also in action over the weekend was Guy Learmonth (George Gandy), who got his season off to a strong start with victory in the 800m. The 21 year old returns to the Emirates again on Saturday, while Moscow 1500m finalist Chris O’Hare will be looking to continue from where he left off in 2013 after a strong season, which saw him race to a Scottish Indoor record of 3:37.25.

European U23 bronze medallist Allan Smith (Fuzz Ahmed) will go up against training partners David Smith (Ahmed) and Robbie Grabarz (Ahmed), as well as Olympic silver medallist Erik Kynard in the high jump. 

Para-athletes will also mark a milestone for the event, contributing to the overall team score for the first time at the Sainsbury’s Glasgow International Match. London 2012 Paralympic silver medallists Libby Clegg (Keith Antoine) and Stef Reid (Reider) will look to secure maximum points in the T11-13 60m and T44 long jump respectively.

Stephen Maguire, Scottish Athletics’ Director of Coaching, said: “It will be a massive experience for the Scotland team. It will be a sold out Emirates Arena and gives the team an opportunity to compete in front of a Scottish crowd and that is great preparation and that’s the way I’m looking at it.

“The Scotland team gives the event a different dynamic. When you actually sit down and think about it, you look at the likes of Laura Muir, Eilidh Child, Chris O’Hare, they are as good as anything in the US or the British teams and then you start picking through the events and you think ‘you know what, we need to go in with the attitude of doing the best we can, our top athletes absolutely challenging and the younger athletes benefit from the experience’.”

Scotland team to face GB & NI, USA and Commonwealth Select at Sainsbury’s Glasgow International Match on Saturday 25 January:

A small number of tickets are still available for the Sainsbury’s Glasgow International Match via britishathletics.org.uk  

The Sainsbury’s Glasgow International Match will be live on BBC One from 13:45-16:30.