Athletics: Gauson heads for the UK champs in a relaxed mood

"I want to have a good AAA/UK Champs type experience before the Olympic year but whatever happens I'm going to the World University Games in Shenzhen next month," said Gauson, who clinched his place with an impressive run to capture the Scottish 800 metres title at Scotstoun earlier this month.

"The others will be running hard to make the World Championship team for Daegu and will be under a lot of pressure."

Gauson, still only 23, will be challenging for the 1500m title in Birmingham along with his former EAC clubmate Mark Mitchell and believes a top-five finish would be a really good achievement given the quality of opposition they are likely to face.

He is relieved that Mo Farah, who recently broke the British 5000m record, is more likely to run that distance than the 1500 which it was rumoured he would do. "Mo would probably just run away from us all, given the form he's in just now."

Gauson, who has just graduated from Butler University in Indiana, faces a heat on Saturday and possible final on Sunday but believes he can cope with two races in successive days better than many of his opponents.

"I ran a 3:47.0 in the heats of the Inter-Regionals in the USA then ran 3:46.0 in the final including a 47 secs last 300 metres. I'm quite confident I can run well this weekend and if I do I'm hoping it will get me into the Diamond League meeting in London."

Lynsey Sharp (EAC) faces an even tougher schedule than Gauson if she is to bag a place in the 800m in Daegu to go along with her WUGS trip to China.

The European Under-23 bronze medallist has a heat tomorrow, then, if all goes well, a semi-final on Saturday and hopefully the final on Sunday.

With the second fastest time by a Brit this season of 2:00.65 to her credit, Sharp just needs to get on the pace a little bit more in the first lap to dip under two minutes.

But the three-race format makes it difficult to achieve fast times and Lynsey's mother Carol, herself an ex-internationalist, reckons the organisers have invited too many athletes for the events.

"It will be very hard and it's very silly."I think the number of rounds will have a significant bearing on the result and pace of the final."

The Scots with the best chance of going to Korea are Glasgow's Lee McConnell, virtually guaranteed her place in the 4x400m relay squad, but who would also dearly love to qualify for the individual 400m where she needs to get the qualifying time of 51.50 secs and Eilidh Child (Pitreavie), who also needs to cut into her season's best by a fraction to achieve the required 400m hurdles time of 55.40.

Child faces a tough opponent in her old rival Perri Shakes Drayton who has already run under 55 seconds this season.

Not with any Deagu hopes but certainly a potential title-winner in the hammer is Edinburgh Leisure manager Andy Frost, who will be one of the first in action tomorrow night.

Scotland's national champion sprinters Nick Smith Dunfermline) and Ryan Oswald (Pitreavie) are turning their backs on the UK Championships, however.

Smith won the Scottish 100m title for a record fifth year in a row and seventh time in all when he narrowly shaded Oswald at Glasgow's Scotstoun Stadium recently, while Oswald turned the tables to take the 200 metres.

But Smith, an Olympic relay squad member in Athens in 2004, believes there is no point in going as he will not break the South monopoly on the relay places.

Oswald will concentrate on helping Pitreavie win the Scottish senior 4x100m title, which will be decided at the Scottish Junior Championships at Scotstoun on Sunday.

But he has ambitious plans to do better in future: "I need to get much stronger and get some training under my belt," he says.