Athletics: Lynsey Sharp gears up for Glasgow

Olympic 800 metres semi-finalist Sharp (Edinburgh AC) travelled to Kenya to put herself through altitude training after her best-ever year in 2012. She will modestly target her indoor 800m best of just under 2:10.0, which she set in the Scottish Under-20 Championships at Kelvin Hall in 2008. The race will be her first  competitive indoor event for five years.

Given the quality of the  opposition being lined up against her, which includes the Olympic bronze medallist Ekaterina Poistogova of Russia, it would be extremely surprising if she isn’t forced to clock a  far faster time, lack of speed training or not.

“She went to Kenya to see how she would respond to the altitude,” explained her mother Carol. “She was doing long runs of up to eight miles and working really hard. There were some track runs, but only in trainers.”

Eilidh Child (Pitreavie) is also back from abroad, in her case South Africa, and will have a rare outing on the boards, running the flat 400m for the Commonwealth Select against her arch English rival Perri Shakes-Drayton as she seeks to inject more aggression into her 400m hurdling.

Allan Smith (EAC) is also  in the Commonwealth Select. He will have to worry about  the British captain, Olympic bronze medallist Robbie Grabarz, in the high jump, as well as the World Indoor  silver medallist Aleksey Dmitrik (Russia).

Given the competition, he will do well to come out of the contest matching his new Scottish Native record of 2.22m.

Libby Clegg (EAC) is a largely unsung local hero who claimed a silver medal in the T12 100m at the Paralympics, but tomorrow she will be in the spotlight for the sell-out 5000 fans, who are sure to create  a great atmosphere at this splendid new facility.

Glasgow’s Stef Reid is  another Paralympian star in  action in the long jump.