Athletics: Scots looking for more PBs, this time at Bedford

Small parties of Scottish athletes will be heading out in search of competition at home and abroad this weekend with the main target the Inter-Counties Championships at Bedford on Sunday and Monday.

Double Commonwealth Games rep Gemma Nicol will contest the 400 metres at Bedford for the East of Scotland in her first one-lap outing of the season.

An absentee at the Loughborough International, Dunfermline's Nicol, the current Scottish champion and three times winner of the title, is still only 24 and must be hoping she can emulate Capital hammer-throwers Andy Frost and Susan McKelvie who, at Loughborough, impressively bettered their personal best performances set back in 2006.

Nicol also set her personal best of 53.46 that year, but ironically she did not win selection for the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games, having been chosen for Manchester in 2002 at the tender age of 15, the youngest Scottish athlete ever, and competing there in the 4 x 400m as a 16-year-old.

A former runner-up in the annual New Year Pro Sprint, Nicol deservedly won back her place in the 4 x 400m team for Delhi 2010, teaming up with Lee McConnell, Eilidh Child and Kathryn Evans in a quartet which finished a respectable sixth in a national record of 3:30.91.

Representing Scotland at Loughborough was 17-year-old Kirsten McAslan, the daughter of Ewan McAslan and Fiona, ne Hargreaves, who both represented Scotland before moving south to pursue their careers.

Fiona had an excellent PB of 53.34 for 400m back in 1986, the year she also represented Scotland in the Commonwealth Games.

Kirsten's best so far is 54.66 indoors and 56.74 outdoors.

Another big unsung success at Loughborough was former EAC star Gregor MacLean, who is now based at the Midlands centre of excellence. MacLean mastered the windy conditions better than most in the pole vault to finish second with a clearance of 5.20m, which puts him third on the all-time Scottish rankings list for the event.

As Loughborough appears to be current favourite for the hammer-throwers, so Bedford lures the jumpers with both leading Scots John Carr and Jude Beimers heading there to compete for East in the long jump as are Jade Nimmo, fresh from her 6.31 pb, and Lisa Ferguson (EAC) in the women's long.

Jayne Nisbet (EAC) gives the high jump a miss to try her luck there in the triple.