A look ahead to Saturday’s British Milers’ Club Grand Prix meeting

British internationals Laura Weightman, Hannah England, Jess Judd and Charlie Grice are just four of the top names who will headline an exciting top-class domestic entry for the British Milers Club Grand Prix at Watford on Saturday evening.

Meeting organiser and BMC chairman Tim Brennan has been taken aback by the entry not just in terms of quality but also sheer numbers.

If it all holds together then domestically I think it will probably be the strongest meeting we have ever held,” said Brennan. There aren t that many British athletes missing and the women s 800m has a real championship look to it, while other races are as good as many international races you might see.

We have also had a total of 530 entries so we have to reject around 80 or 90 and there are a bunch on the waiting list.”

Brennan s biggest problem will be who to leave out of the coveted A race places, but he is happy to take that in his stride in what promise to be a great evening of middle-distance running.

Weightman is UK No.2 at 1500m this season after clocking 4:04.70 behind Laura Muir in Oslo recently as both women ran inside the qualifying standard for the Worlds. Like many of the athletes entered, Weightman, who was third in the European Championships and runner-up in the Commonwealth Games last year, is looking for a sharpener ahead of the Sainsbury s British Championships the following week.

As well as facing England, who is also stepping down for a sharpener, Weightman will also be up against Kiwi 800m specialist and Glasgow Commonwealth Games finalist Angie Petty, while the quickest Brit this season in the field is Shelayna Oskan-Clarke.

Theo Blundell has been setting the pace in the men s 800m this year and after his first Grand Prix win in Trafford he set a PB of 1:47.14 in Belgium to go top of the UK rankings. The 19-year-old Birchfield Harrier heads a field that also includes UK No.3 Jamie Webb and top junior Kyle Langford.

The women s 1500m also oozes class with the likes of British internationals and current UK 5000m No.1 Steph Twell, Judd and Jemma Simpson.

Grice, Ross Murray and Jake Wightman have been three of the most exciting young runners to emerge in the 1500m in recent years and they spearhead yet another quality entry along with Dave Bishop and Tom Farrell. It will also be interesting to see how 5000m men Jonathan Davies and Jonny Mellor fare as they step down for some speed work.

It would be great to see as many athletics fans at the meeting as possible and the entry fee will be just 5,” added Brennan.

The action kicks off at 5pm.

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