Kirsty Law is thrilled to have been called into the Great Britain team for this weekend’s European Athletics Team Championships Super League at Silesia, Poland.
The on-form Black Isle discus thrower, who is based in Loughborough, was originally left out of the squad as the selectors favoured 2016 Rio Olympian Jade Lally.
But Lally subsequently decided not to make the trip back to Europe from her Australian training base and Law was invited to take up the vacant place.
The 34-year-old 12-time Scottish champion has produced a series of excellent performances this season, having achieved the 2022 Commonwealth Games qualifying mark three times, her best throw coming last month when she cleared 58.82.
She also won the Charnwood open with 58.78 and last weekend’s Loughborough international with 58.59.
Law, who is chasing Olympic selection, certainly deserves the chance to show what she can do, as she was denied the opportunity to compete in the European Throws meeting earlier in the month when Great Britain had no female discus representation.
The latest update to the @EuroAthletics Team Championship squad.
Coverage of @silesia21 will be on @BBCSport this weekend 📺 #ETCH2021
— British Athletics (@BritAthletics) May 27, 2021
She said: “I’m excited to get the opportunity to compete in Poland. It’s important for me to get into these higher level competitions before the Olympic trials at the end of June.
“I’ve a busy spell coming up and I’ll be staying in Europe for most of the time up until the Olympic trials at the end of June.
“After Poland, I’m heading for competitions in Sweden (June 6), Denmark (June 8) and Finland (June 10).
“After that I plan to spend about 10 days training in Portugal before returning for the trials. Portugal is a green-listed country, so there shouldn’t be any concerns about having to quarantine on return from there.”
Law has a bit of ground to make up in her quest for a Tokyo place in July as the qualifying standard is 62.52m.
However, there is an alternative route to qualification through the Olympic points system, which rewards performances which are weighted according to the importance of the competition.
Law will be joined by five other Scots in the GB team this weekend, including experienced campaigners such as Edinburgh AC’s Jake Wightman in the 800m, Beth Dobbin in the 200m and Shaftesbury Barnet’s Chris Bennett in the hammer.
Giffnock North’s Erin Wallace wins her first senior call-up in the 1,500m, but she has extensive international experience in younger age groups, including winning gold at the Commonwealth Youth Games.
High jump specialist Will Grimsey (Woodford Green), who became eligible for Scotland over the past 18 months, also makes his senior debut.
Great Britain will face teams from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Ukraine in the two-day fixture.
Richardson and Kelly ready to fly the flag
Chris Richardson and Jason Kelly of Metro Aberdeen Running Club will make their Scotland international debuts in the Anglo Celtic Plate 100k road race later this summer.
And they’ll be joined in the five-man national team by clubmate Kyle Greig, while Dusseldorf-based Nairn athlete Niki Johnstone is also in the squad, completed by Edinburgh’s Rob Turner.
The race will be held on August 21 at Mondello Park Motor Circuit, Naas, County Kildare.
Richardson showed his ultra distance capabilities by setting a course record time of 3hr 56min 52sec when winning the Speyside Way 36.5 mile race last November.
And last month he slashed three mins from his previous best marathon time when clocking 2hr 24min 54sec in an invitation-only event in Cheshire.
Kelly made his ultra-distance breakthrough by winning the 2020 Deeside Way 33 mile race.
Earlier this year, he set the fastest known time for running the whole length of the Deeside Way, completing the 44-mile journey from Ballater’s Victorian railway station to the gates of Aberdeen’s Duthie park in 4hr 45min 46secs.
Greig is the most experienced of the Metro trio, having finished third in the previous Celtic Plate race at Perth in 6:54:42, which is the fifth fastest of all-time by a Scot.
Johnstone has had to be patient in his quest for a Scotland call-up. He was originally selected for the 2020 Celtic Plate match, which was cancelled because of the Covid pandemic.
The 37-year-old, who has lived in Dusseldorf for the past 14 years where he is employed as a PE teacher at the ISR International School on the Rhine, has been a prolific marathon runner in recent years.
Chalmers heads to Manchester with high hopes
Scotland international Sean Chalmers hopes to build on his fine start to the track season by producing another top performance in the British Milers Club meeting at Manchester’s Sportcity tomorrow evening.
The Aberdeen-based Inverness Harriers club member is to run in the 5,000m with the aim of improving his best time. He has previously recorded 14min 40.04secs on the track and 14:21.00 on the road.
Chalmers showed good form in the Aberdeen Sports Village open meeting last weekend when winning the 3,000m in a PB 8:20.37. It was an impressive performance in windy conditions and came shortly after he had recovered from a sciatic problem.
He said: “I was pleased with my run. I’d missed about 10 days of training and, although I was quite fresh for the race, I’d lost a bit of sharpness. I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do this weekend.”
Chalmers will be joined in Manchester by Aberdeen AAC’s Michael Ferguson, who is to compete in the 1,500m.
Meanwhile, Aberdeen AAC’s aim of extending a five-year unbeaten run in the Scottish men’s athletics league has been put on hold for at least another year.
Last season’s campaign never got out of the starting blocks because of the pandemic and this season’s competition has been reformatted to conform with guidelines for holding sporting events.
A series of stand-alone meetings open to members of the men’s, women’s and national junior leagues will be held, starting this weekend at Grangemouth.
Aberdeen team manager Eoghan MacNamara explained: “There will be a limited number of events at each meeting, but there will be no points awarded, no promotions and no demotions. They are going to be more like open graded meetings.”
