The 2023 UK Athletics Championships and World Trials will commence this Saturday at Manchester Regional Arena.
In addition to national titles up for grabs, places at the Budapest World Championships in August are at stake, with the top two in each event set to represent Great Britain, providing they have achieved the qualifying standard.
One additional place will be decided upon by the Team GB selectors, making a maximum of three, contingent on meeting qualifying standard criteria.
World Champion 1500m runner, Jake Wightman, 400m national record holder, Matthew Hudson-Smith, nine-time national champion Holly Bradshaw, and 2019 World Champion heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson are amongst some of the headlining names due to compete this weekend.
Which London athletes will be there and who are the ones to watch?
Dina Asher Smith, 200m women’s World Champion in 2019, goes into both the 100m and 200m events this year after narrowly missing out on 100m gold in 2022.
Her 100m National record was nabbed by Olympic 100m finalist Daryll Neita, with a time of 10.80, leaving Asher Smith to settle for silver in last year’s Championships.
The 27-year-old will be eager to claim both titles this year, although she will face some serious competition, and will be again joined by Shaftesbury Barnet sprinter Neita in the 100m.
As well as her 100m gold medal victory over Asher Smith, the 2022 UK Athletics Championships continued to reward Neita, as she also claimed the women’s 200m title with a time of 22.34.
Despite setting a new 200m Personal Record of 22.23 at the start of June, Neita will only be racing in the 100m this weekend, although both herself and Asher Smith have already succeeded World Championship qualifying standard criteria in both disciplines.
Last Week, Zharnel Hughes rewrote the history of British sprinting when he produced the best performance of his career so far to break Linford Christie’s near 30-year-standing 100m record, with a time of 9.83.
This moved Hughes to second on the European all-time list, and he is likely to maintain a similar standard this weekend.
Lake Morgan won gold at this competition in June last year, with a height of 1.85m, but has since matched her PB from 2018 of 1.97m, and on the 4th of February took Katherina Johnson Thompson’s National Record title, with a jump of 1.99m.
Morgan may have some defending to do, as she will be joined by 2019 World Champion heptathlete Johnson-Thompson at this year’s Championships.
Joel Clarke-Khan will be competing in the male equivalent and he is twice national champion.
However he is yet to beat his PB of 2.27m, which he achieved at Bedford Athletic Stadium three weeks prior to last year’s Championships, and a jump 0.05m further is required in order to meet the qualifying standard criteria for the Worlds.
In women’s discus Jade Lalley enters this year’s competition, after being named National Champion for the 8th time last year, following her throw of 61.42m.
In the men’s event, former American footballer Lawrence Okoye became the first ever British athlete to win a discus medal at a European Championships during Munich 2022.
Okoye will be striving to match his performance at the European Championships, where he threw 67.14m, which will be enough to compete in Budapest.
Timetables of finals
Saturday, July 8th:
- 11:40 Women’s Javelin Throw
- 13:05 Women’s Triple Jump
- 13:50 Men’s Shot Put
- 14:36 Women’s Hammer Throw
- 14:55 Women’s 100m Hurdles
- 15:00 Women’s Pole Vault
- 16:00 Men’s Long Jump
- 17:24 Women’s High Jump
- 17:47 Men’s Discus Throw
- 18:40 Women’s 3000m Steeplechase
- 19:00 Men’s 5000m
- 19:22 Men’s 100m
- 19:32 Women’s 100m
Sunday, July 9th:
- 11:15 Men’s Javelin Throw
- 11:45 Women’s 5000m Walk
- 12:20 Men’s Triple Jump
- 12:25 Men’s 5000m Walk
- 12:55 Women’s Shot Put
- 13:10 Men’s Hammer Throw
- 14:10 Men’s Pole Vault
- 14:30 Women’s 5000m
- 14:50 Men’s High Jump
- 14:55 Men’s 110m Hurdles
- 15:05 Women’s 400m Hurdles
- 15:10 Women’s Long Jump
- 15:15 Men’s 400m Hurdles
- 15:20 Women’s Discus Throw
- 15:25 Men’s 3000m Steeplechase
- 15:40 Women’s 200m
- 15:50 Men’s 200m
- 16:00 Men’s 400m
- 16:10 Women’s 1500m
- 16:20 Women’s 400m
- 16:30 Men’s 800m
- 16:40 Women’s 800m
- 16:50 Men’s 1500m
In Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the UK Athletics Championships will be free to view on the BBC Red Button, BBC iPlayer, and the BBC Sport website and app.
Coverage including highlights will also be available on British Athletics TV.
Featured image credit: William Warby, Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
