Athletics: Learmonth aiming to turn up the heat at Kelvin Hall

LASSWADE'S Guy Learmonth, one of the most exciting prospects to arrive on the Scottish athletics scene in the last year, will bid to add the Scottish senior indoor 800 metres title to his collection at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow tomorrow.

Learmonth, still only 17, burst into prominence at the Scottish Inter-Regional Championships at the same venue last month, winning the 800m in a Scottish Under-20 record of 1:51.28 and seeing off such a seasoned competitor as Scottish internationalist Graeme Oudney (Pitreavie).

Learmonth's father Mark ran for Edinburgh AC in the late seventies and early eighties, trained for a time with Olympic 100m champion Allan Wells and set personal best sprint times of 10.7 seconds and 21.60sec for 100 and 200m distances respectively.

Dunfermline's Nick Smith has his sights on bettering his own Scots Native record of 6.63sec for the 60m after finishing a close-up fourth in 6.69secs at last Saturday's Aviva Indoor International in Glasgow. But the former New Year Sprint winner would need to go sub-6.60 sec to come into the reckoning for the World Indoor Championships in Doha next month. With no one likely to push him tomorrow that is probably too tough an ask.

Long jumper Jade Nimmo has constantly been tipped for stardom but has been thwarted by injury, and tomorrow she should eclipse the under-20 record of 5.94m.