Birmingham return for Collins, Lagat

Published on Friday 26 December 2008 09:10

FORMER world 100 metres champion Kim Collins and double world gold medallist Bernard Lagat will both compete at the Aviva British Grand Prix in Birmingham on February 21.

Collins, the sprinter from St Kitts and Nevis who came sixth in this year's 200m Olympic final in Beijing, will race over 60m on the National Indoor Arena track where he won the World Championships silver medal in 2003.

He repeated that performance at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia in March when he shared second place with Dwain Chambers.

Collins is eyeing up this year's World Championships in August as a potential medal chance and admits he cannot wait to get his 2009 campaign under way.

"Winning silver at the World Indoor Championships in March was very satisfactory and I will look to go one better in Berlin at the Worlds next August," he said. "I set my personal best of 6.53sec for 60m at the NIA and will be aiming for another fast time."

Lagat, who won two World outdoor titles (1500m and 5000m) in 2007, will be targeting his fourth win at the Aviva Grand Prix.

The Kenya-born star, now representing the USA, will run the 1500m and is looking forward to returning to Birmingham.

"I was really happy with most of my season last year however, unfortunately, I picked up an injury mid July that was the worst possible time before Beijing," said Lagat. "That was very disappointing but that is behind me now and I'm very focused on defending my titles at the World Championships in Berlin.

"Birmingham is the ideal opportunity to test myself."