JOSH KERR in GB SQUAD FOR WORLD ATHLETICS INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS GLASGOW 24

JOSH KERR in GB SQUAD FOR WORLD ATHLETICS INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS GLASGOW 24

The Nice Britain and Northern Eire group for the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24 (1-3 March) has been introduced. Give or take one or two late additions, the GB group for the World Indoors will encompass 20 athletes.  9 particular person ladies, six particular person males, and 5 relay ladies.

The stand-out choice is Josh Kerr, World Champion outside at 1500m, who will compete within the 3000m, discovering the lure of a worldwide championship in his native Scotland too arduous to withstand.  There can be a robust Scottish middle-distance presence with Laura Muir within the ladies’s 3000m and Jemma Reekie within the 800.  Laura instructed me {that a} straight-to-final 3000m was rather more enticing to her at this stage of the season than a 1500 with heats and a ultimate.

The boys’s group appears to be like unbalanced – 2 hurdlers, 2 within the 1500m and a pair of others.  The shortage of a GB 4 by 400 males’s group appears to be like surprising, given our custom within the occasion and medal in Budapest however the underlying query at each level this yr, for each athlete, is: will working in Glasgow assist my probabilities within the Olympics?

In Budapest final summer season, GB received 10 medals – omitting the two dash relay medals, leaving 8 – six particular person and a pair of relay medals.  The Glasgow group contains Josh Kerr, however Ben Pattison, Keely Hodgkinson, Matt Hudson-Smith, Zharnel Hughes, and Katarina Johnson-Thompson opted in opposition to a aggressive indoor season. The ladies’s 4 by 400 relay squad is there, albeit together with within the Glasgow squad, solely two who ran in Budapest.  There is no such thing as a males’s relay group as not one of the Budapest medallists ran within the UK Indoor Champs.

It’s what it’s.  There are some severe medal contenders, and a few youthful athletes have been given alternatives.

The complete group within the format: athlete identify, (coach, membership) – occasion is

Girls

Georgia Bell (Trevor Painter, Belgrave) – 1500m

Isabelle Boffey (Luke Gunn, Enfield and Haringey) – 800m

Molly Caudery (Scott Simpson, Thames Valley) – Pole Vault

Morgan Lake (Robbie Grabarz, Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow) – Excessive Soar

Laura Muir (Steve Vernon, Dundee Hawkhill) – 3000m

Laviai Nielsen (Tony Lester, Enfield and Haringey) – 400m

Jemma Reekie (Jon Bigg, Kilbarchan) – 800m

Cindy Sember (Chris Johnson, Woodford Inexperienced Essex Women) – 60m Hurdles

Revee Walcott-Nolan (Thomas Dreißigacker, Luton) – 1500m

4x400m: Hannah Brier (Matt Elias, Swansea), Hannah Kelly (Les Corridor, Bolton), Jessie Knight (Marina Armstrong, Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow), Laviai Nielsen (Tony Lester, Enfield and Haringey), Lina Nielsen (Tony Lester, Shaftesbury Barnet) and Ama Pipi (Linford Christie; Enfield & Haringey)

 Males

Jeremiah Azu (Marco Airale, Cardiff) – 60m

Callum Elson (Nick Aguila, Cambridge & Coleridge) – 1500m

Adam Fogg (Cory Leslie, Coventry) – 1500m

Josh Kerr (Danny Mackey, Edinburgh) – 3000m

David King (Tim O’Neil, Metropolis of Plymouth) – 60m Hurdles

Tade Ojora (Joanna Hayes, Windsor Slough Eton and Hounslow) – 60m Hurdles

Paula Dunn, Olympic Head Coach, commented: “We’re happy to be asserting such a robust group for the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24, and I’m trying ahead to seeing how the group performs on the world stage. We had an exciting Nationwide Championships the place athletes secured their locations for the Workforce in Scotland, and it was incredible to see quite a lot of athletes stepping up when it counted. It is a actually thrilling squad that features international medallists in addition to athletes who can be hoping to make an influence on the world stage for the primary time”.