Athletics News

SAUCONY GRAND PRIX SPORT CITY PREVIEW

SAUCONY GRAND PRIX SPORT CITY PREVIEW

ON many occasions in the past the SportCity Grand Prix has launched an exciting summer of racing for the British Milers’ Club and this weekend looks like it will be no different for the eagerly-anticipated 2023 campaign.

“Entries have been going crazy and we have had so much interest which is really good for the opening Grand Prix,” said Steve Green, who is jointly organising the event with club President Norman Poole and help from Dave Norman.

“We have close to a total entries of 500 over 33 races which I believe maybe a BMC record. We are all really looking forward to Saturday.”

Quite often one event stands out for the quality of its field and again this year is no different with a top class international field lining up for the women’s 800m A race, a fitting reflection of the Grand Prix’s status as part of the 2023 World Athletics Continental Tour.

From Australia Commonwealth Games 800m bronze medallist Abbey Caldwell will be joined on the startline by Ireland’s Ciara Mageean, the reigning European 1500m silver medallist who opened her outdoor season with 2:00.36 in Belfast earlier this month.

The last time Lynsey Sharp raced the Grand Prix at SportCity was in 2019 and she won the race in 2:06.56 at the start of a season which led to the World Championships in Doha.

A lot has happened in Sharp’s life since then including becoming a mother so it is great to see her back racing again having returned to BMC action with second place (2:04.71) in the Gold Standard meeting at Trafford on May 16th.

That sort of time may not concern either Caldwell or Mageean but Sharp is a fierce competitor and she’ll be keen to get in the mix and continue her comeback with a fast time.

Add in rising teenage star Phoebe Gill, who clocked 2:03.10 at Watford recently, Khahisa Mhlanga, junior Ella Greenway and Erin Wallace and no wonder Green is excited.

“The women’s 800m A race is a real stellar event and it should be fascinating to see how it develops,” added Green.

“It is good to have a race with so many proven recent medallists as they will be racing to win.”

The men’s A race also has an international flavour with Brazil’s Leandro Alves Prates heading the field as he targets a time of 1min 45secs.

He’ll be given the pace to attack that and can expect a strong British contingent, boasting David Locke, Daniel Howells, Alex Botterill, who ran a big PB of 3:42.04 over 1500m to win at Trafford…

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