Athletics: Eilidh Child wants No.1 ranking back and Barcelona place

NEW Scottish record-holder Eilidh Child has a double mission as she goes into the 400 metres hurdles at tomorrow's European Team Cup in Bergen, Norway.

First she wants to clinch her place in next month's European Championships in Barcelona by again bettering the qualifying time of 55.50 seconds and then she wants to regain her British No.1 ranking this season after her great rival Perri Shakes-Drayton stole the mantle with a superb run of 54.91 secs last weekend.

The sole Scot in the GB team, the 23-year-old Pitreavie cub member gained her team place in Bergen thanks to a splendid run in Bydgoszcz, Poland, when she broke Sinead Dudgeon's Scottish record by 0.07 secs with a time of 55.17, while Shakes-Drayton failed to break 56 seconds in Rabat the same weekend.

But the English runner, who pipped Child for the National Under-23 title last year and has had several close tussles with the Edinburgh PE graduate, struck back with a vengeance to go under 55 seconds for the first time.

"It's great, I'm really looking forward to more battles with Perri this year," said Child, who, however, will be on her own in GB colours in Bergen tomorrow and will have more than enough to worry about from her European rivals.

Judging by the stumble she had at the tenth hurdle in Poland in her record-breaking run, Child certainly has more to come and could even get under the 55 second barrier in Bergen and smash the record again.

"She knows she can run faster," said her coach Stuart Hogg confidently.

While Child is in Norway, Shakes-Drayton may well turn out in Bedford tomorrow at the UK Under-23 and under-20 Championships. Among the Scots targeting the meeting are Capital sprinter Pat Swan, who cashed in on his trip to Poland last Sunday with a Scottish 4x100m squad (for which he was only reserve) by setting a new PB for the 400m of 47.07, but will concentrate on the 200m this weekend and the 400m at the UK Championships at the forthcoming European Trials.

Places in the 800m in the World Junior Championships in Monckton, Canada will be up for grabs with as many as five in contention including Scots Stuart Ross, who is only 17 and has a best of 1:48.9 this season and Lasswade's Guy Learmonth.

Learmonth has still to break 1:50.0, but has now got his exams behind him and is confident that he take things forward, even though he needs an improvement of two seconds to beat the World qualifying standard (1:48.5).

Allan Hamilton (Edinburgh AC) broke a 40-year-old record for the long jump when, at the George Watson's School Sports at Myreside, he reached 7.12m, one centimetre better than his winning PB at the Scottish Schools at Grangemouth last Saturday. He also took the high jump at 1.95m.

Hamilton, who also broke the Scottish Schools triple jump best with a leap of 14.77m at Grangemouth, will be concentrating on long jump in Bedford this weekend.