Athletics: Learmonth's focus is Uni title success

Scotland's outstanding middle distance prospect Guy Learmonth (Lasswade) will be back in action at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield today at the British Universities Championships after deciding to abandon any attempt to find a race to achieve the European Indoor Championship 800 metres qualifying time for Paris next month.

The 18-year-old Loughborough student was third in the UK Trials at Sheffield last Sunday behind Joe Thomas (Cardiff) and Andrew Osagie ((Harlow) who have been named in the UK team for the 1000 metres in the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham today.

"I've decided to concentrate on bringing the title back to Scotland," said Learmonth, who set his seventh Scottish Under-20 Indoor record with a time of 1:49.34 in claiming the bronze medal, compared to the Paris qualifying time of 1:48.0.

Learmonth faces the prospect of running three races in the student event with heats and semi-final today and the final tomorrow. "With the likes of Robbie Schofield (Loughborough) and Ben Wallis (Guildford) in the field he won't have things all his own way either," said his coach Henry Gray.