The world and European indoor 60m champion is among the GB internationals due to compete in Glasgow

World and European indoor 60m champion Richard Kilty headlines the line-up for this weekend’s Scottish Senior Championships at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.

The ‘Teesside Tornado is one of more than a dozen GB internationals across various disciplines set to compete with the well-known Scottish athletes involved on Saturday (January 30) including Laura Muir, Kirsten McAslan, Allan Smith, Jamie Bowie, Josephine Moultrie and Maddie Murray.

Kilty is entered for the 60m and is looking to kick-start his indoor season, with the defence of his world indoor title in Portland in March very much the target.

“Richard has been out with some of the guys in Tenerife for warm weather training and is in good shape,” said Stephen Maguire, the former Scottish Athletics director of coaching who is now responsible for sprints with UK Athletics.

“He needs to get started and it was felt the Scottish Champs would be ideal for him before heading to Poland next week and some European meets.

“Defending the world indoor title he won in Sopot in 2014 is the goal and of course he won the Europeans at 60m last year, too. These titles are precious to him and he s a real competitor. It should be great for Scottish sprinters to meet and compete with him on Saturday.”

High jumpers Allan Smith, David Smith and Ray Bobrownicki go head-to-head after producing a terrific competition last year and there are other Glasgow 2014 Scots on the start-list including long jumper Sarah Warnock and throwers Angus McInroy and Kirsty Yates.

One of the events of the day could be the women s 800m, with Laura Muir having already been within 17 hundredths of a second of her Scottish indoor record earlier this month.

The field looks set to be strong and while Muir is clearly the favourite, it could be exciting to see how some of Scotland s best young athletes fare via the performances of Carys McAulay, Mhairi Hendry, Erin Wallace and Sarah Eunson. Muir s best of 2:00.94 was set at the Emirates two years ago and she ran 2:01.11 on January 16.

The ‘wild-card’ for the event is GB world relay medallist McAslan. She hasn t run the 800m for four years (her PB is listed as 2:08.39) but with no plan to compete over 400m at the World Indoors, the Manchester-based 22-year-old will head to Glasgow with high hopes for her four-lap ‘experiment’.

“Kirsten is very excited about this 800m run and so are we,” said her coach, Trevor Painter, who is married to Jenny Meadows.

“She has been in South Africa training recently but the Scottish Champs is a good opportunity now for her. We ve had this 800m idea for quite some time but it just has not quite fitted her schedule. She has a 2:08 but that is historic and she has not run one for four years.

“I d like to think she is in shape for something around 2:01 to 2:03 in terms of a time. Certainly, she is working away with training partners who can run 2:03.

“The indoor season isn’t a huge focus, though, because the summer season is more important with the Olympics on the horizon for the 400m and the 4x400m relay.”

The under-17 Scottish Champs take place alongside the senior event with around 450 athletes in all due to compete.

Entry lists can be found here.

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