This year's UK Athletics Championships, which take place this weekend in Birmingham, is missing some of the tension that so often accompanies the national championships.
While the UK Championships often doubles as the trials for that summer’s major championship, the 2026 edition is not, with Team Scotland's squad for this summer’s Commonwealth Games already selected, although not publicly announced yet. And so, with GB selection for this summer’s European Championships not being decided upon entirely by results over the next two days, there’s slightly less on the line this weekend than is often the case.
This, however, has not deterred many of the biggest names in Scottish athletics from travelling south of the border this weekend as they aim to pick up national titles.
GB regulars, Laura Muir, Jake Wightman, Neil Gourley and Megan Keith are competing, although two notable absences are 2023 world 1500m champion, Josh Kerr, who won the British 5000m last year and who is choosing instead to focus upon his world mile attempt next month and Jemma Reekie, who is a late withdrawal due to suffering from concussion.
With Kerr absent from the middle distance events, Wightman, who won 1500m silver at the World Championships last season, is tipped to add a the British 800m title to the 1500m one he won in 2022.
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Having suffered a miserable run of injuries following his world 1500m title win in 2022, Wightman appears to have left his bad luck behind and is coming into this season having had, he says, “the best winter of his life” in training terms.
In contention for the 1500m title this weekend is likely to be the Glaswegian defending champion, Gourley, who has also regained fitness after suffering from injury issues while Englishman, Elliot Giles, will also be in the hunt.
In the women’s 1500m, Muir will be aiming to regain her British 1500m title, which was snatched from her in the biggest upset of the event last year when fellow Scot, Sarah Calvert, pipped her on the line to win her maiden national title. Calvert, who has also claimed the scalp of Reekie this season already, will be defending her title in Birmingham. Also in the 1500m field is Glasgow’s Erin Wallace but favourite for the title is Englishwoman, Georgia Hunter-Bell.
Megan Keith has already produced several impressive performances this season, including breaking the European 10km record earlier this year and setting a new Scottish women’s 3000m record earlier this month. This weekend, she will aim to add the 5000m national title to the brace of 10,000m titles she already has to her name and her compatriot, Eloise Walker will also be looking to challenge for 5000m silverware, while Sarah Tait will be hoping to improve upon her 3000m steeplechase silver medal from last year. Andy Butchart will go in the men's 5000m as he aims to win his first British title since 2019.
In the shorter distances, sprinter Alisha Rees will hope to make a case for a place in GB’s European Championships relay squad and 400m specialist Rebecca Grieve, who is based in the USA, will also be in action.
In the field events, Chris Bennett will continue his comeback in the hammer while in the discus, Nick Percy and Kirsty Law will aim to add further to their UK Championships medal haul. However, Alessandro Schenini will not defend his long jump title.
Also in action this weekend is Olympic champion, Keely Hodgkinson in the 800m while in the sprint events, Zharnel Hughes, Jeremiah Azu, Dina Asher-Smith and Amy Hunt will run.
