Any questions concerning the meeting including withdrawing should be directed to Steve Green
Meeting Timetable: Can be found HERE
Start Lists: Can be found HERE
The live stream can be found HERE 10% BMC discount to the Vinco subscription is available using discount code britishmilersclub10
Live Results HERE
Meeting Details, Venue, Spectating and important parking information can be found HERE
Live Start Lists and Results from AthleticLive
Entry to the Track on 25th May: Please note that for all athletes, spectators and officials, first time entry to the Manchester Regional Arena Track will be via Gate 14, which is at the junction of Rowsley St and Philips Park Rd. This can be located on the Etihad Campus map.
SPORTCITY GRAND PRIX PREVIEW
The British Milers Club will launch its 2024 Grand Prix season with one of the biggest meetings in its history at the Sportcity Stadium, Manchester, on Saturday.
The organisers have been working flat-out to administer the huge volume of entries for the meeting, which has not only attracted its usual strong interest from Britian but also from overseas as well reflecting its status as part of the World Athletics Continental Tour.
“The interest has been so huge that we had to close the entries this year,” said Steve Green.
“We have taken 470 entries and could have easily gone over 500. In the 1500m alone we had 140 entries, which would have been enough for a stand-alone meeting in its own right.
“The interest and demand to run in the first Grand Prix of the season at Sportcity has been fantastic and once again just shows the importance of the BMC.
“It is very gratifying for everyone involved in putting on the meeting because there are a lot of other events out there and yet we have no problem filling up.”
It is quality as well as quantity, too, with a terrific to all the events, from 800m to 5000m.
On paper the standout races individually look like being the women’s and men’s 800m A races.
The women’s field boasts four of the current top six in the UK Rankings plus the Irish national record holder Ciara Mageean – and six of the eight runners have all broken two minutes.
Mageean set an Irish national record of 1:59.27 when finishing runner-up to Australian Abbey Caldwell at Sportcity last year and has since improved that to 1:59.03.
It is also worth pointing out that the 2023 Sportcity race heralded a fantastic summer for Mageean as she went on to finish fourth in the World Championships in Budapest.
Erin Wallace also ran a PB of 2:01.78 at Sportcity last year and subsequently went on to join the sub-two club with 1:59.69. This season she has posted 2:00.23 at the Irish Milers Club meeting, putting her fifth in the UK Rankings.
Khahisa Mhlanga finished fourth in 2023 and became one of the stand-out performers in the Grand Prix Series with two wins, at Loughborough and Stretford plus a second at Birmingham University.
She also went sub-two with 1:59.35 in the BMC Gold Standard at Watford at the end of August.
Isabelle Boffey, boasting a PB of 1:59.30, also lines up having opened up with 2:01.03 outdoors in the Doha Grand Prix for sixth fastest in the UK this year so far and will have big ambitions this summer.
Ellie Baker with 1:59.52 from the BMC meeting at Gillingham at the end of 2022 has run just aoutside two minutes already this year.
Louise Shanahan is the sixth sub-two athlete with 1:59.42 two years ago and opened up with 2:02.73 in Belfast a couple of weeks ago.
Of course, that was the meeting which saw the headlines going to 17-year-old Phoebe Gill, who smashed her PB of 2:01.50 with a stunning 1:57.86 to go top of the UK Rankings – and well inside the qualifying standards for the Olympics (1:59.30), Europeans (2:00.) and the World Juniors (2:04.0).
Understandably her team, including coach Deborah Steer at St Albans AC, are trying to restrain the expectations on Gill after that performance and let her continue to enjoy her running.
But it is worth noting that just a year ago Gill, then racing in the U17s age group, was also in the BMC A race at Sportcity and finished sixth in 2:06.37 but that gave her the launchpad to go on and win the English Schools and Commonwealth Youth Games titles.
“It is a reminder that the BMC is here to encourage and support young runners and we are delighted that Phoebe is doing so well and we’ll do everything we can do help her,” added Green.
“I’d also like to add that we have a fantastic pacemaker in Seren Bundy-Davies, who is keen to give something back to the sport so volunteered to do the pacemaking and that is brilliant for us and all the runners.”
Reece Sharman-Newell heads the entries for the men’s race having already posted a 1:45.50 this year at the USATF Grand Prix meeting in Los Angeles meeting last weekend – just 0.01secs off his lifetime best and good enough to put him fifth in the current UK rankings.
The Basingstoke and Mid Hants athlete is targeting another 1:45 and will have one eye on the 1:45.20 qualifying standard for the European Championships in Rome next month.
Charnwood’s Ryan Elston has also started the season positively clocking a PB of 1:47.44 in the BMC Gold Standard meeting at Birmingham University, a big improvement on his 2023 best of 1:48.88.
Others to watch include Tonbridge’s Ben Murphy and Cardiff’s David Locke, who was runner-up here behind Alex Botterill last year.
“I just think that is going to be a really interesting race to watch and it is a hard one to call,” added Green.
The entry for the women’s 1500m includes Mexican international Laura Galvan, who set that record of 4:03.06 at the BMC Trafford GP in August last year. This year she has opened up with a 31:26.80 10,000m in American but failed to finish at the Night of the 10,000m PBs at Parliament Hill last weekend.
Among the British contingent Bethan Morley, Innes Fitzgerald, Sarah Calvert and Lyla Belshaw are all entered. The men’s 1500m looks wide open and Sale Harriers Max Wharton is sure to have great support.
Hillary Bor of the United States has stated an ambitious 13:10 as his target in the 5000m with Brits Alfie Manthorpe, Blake Moore and Angus McMillan chasing sub 13:50 times.
In the women’s 5000m Belgrave’s Kate Axford recently crowned Polish 10,000m champion (33:49.64) Olimpia Breza stated target is 15:10.
Lauren Cooper and Lucy Jones head the entry for the women’s 3k steeplechase while the fastest man in a small field is Ireland’s Finley Daly.
The meeting starts at 16:10 with the 3000m steeplechase races for men and women with the 36th and final race of a packed, non-stop programme the men’s 5000m A event at 21:04.
If you can’t make the meeting in person – spectator tickets £6 in advance via the website – then log onto Vinco for live coverage at: www.vincosport.com
