Athletics: High jumper Smith gets GB call-up

Capital high jumper Allan Smith (Edinburgh AC) has been rewarded for his splendid start to the indoor season with a place in the Commonwealth Select team to take part in the Great Britain International at the Emirates Arena, Glasgow on Saturday.

The 20-year-old South Queensferry athlete smashed his personal best by five centimetres in setting a new Scottish Native record of 2.22 metres as a guest in the Scottish Universities Championships at the Emirates ten days ago and will now look to see how he reacts performing on the big occasion in front of a sell-out 5000 crowd.

“I’m really pleased to get this opportunity,” said Smith, who will be earning his first senior international vest and who, apart from having a part-time hotel job, is a full-time athlete.

“Coming so soon after I set the native record it’s been an exciting couple of weeks for me and it’ll be the biggest event I’ve ever been involved in.

“I don’t exactly know who I’m up against but obviously Robbie Grabartz is one of them as he’s the GB pick.

“You’re talking about people I’ve been used to watching on television, some of them at the Olympics but you can’t be an athlete and just watch on the telly. At some point you have to get it into your mind that you’re competing with these people and that’s one aspect I’ve been working on with my coach Bryan Roy. I’m in there with all these good athletes and it’ll be good to rub shoulders with them. My mum has been pestering me about tickets; I think the family want to come along.”

Capital 800m runner Lynsey Sharp will also compete in the meeting in the full GB side.

Olympic semi-finalist Sharp is included in the line-up for her main event.