Hampden hammer hero Mark Dry will bid for his third successive Senior Scottish title at Kilmarnock this weekend.
The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist plans to savour the Athletes Parade in Glasgow on Friday but on Sunday it is back to business at the Ayrshire Athletics Arena.
Dry and around 20 others of the Team Scotland track and field squad from Glasgow 2014 are expected to compete at the scottishathletics Senior and Para Success Champs.
It marks the pinnacle of the season for many club athletes in Scotland with more than 300 entries received and Para events are integrated into the programme just like at Hampden.
‘With Lynsey Sharp and Eilidh Child in Zurich and Libby Clegg preparing for the IPC Europeans next week, I guess will be the only athletics medallist there,’ said Dry.
‘I’m coming north for the Athletes Parade and the Commonwealth Games Scotland dinner on Friday but Sunday is all about competition.
‘I’ve won the title the last couple of years but I am sure Andy Frost and Chris Bennett, my team-mates at Hampden, will be busting a gut to beat me.
‘In 2012 I won it with probably the best series of throws I’ve put together in a competition – four of them beyond 74m. Last year, there wasn’t much in it between myself and Andy at Scotstoun.
‘It will be very different from throwing in front of 40,000 at Hampden and everyone screaming their heads off for us. My preparation for this one will be more along usual lines.
‘Kilmarnock is a great facility and we all enjoyed being there prior to the Games. The people are good and hopefully the Seniors will be a successful event. For the throws, a lot depends on the wind direction on the day.’
There should be some intriguing contests between Team Scotland colleagues as Jade Nimmo and Sarah Warnock meet in the long jump – Warnock defending the title she won last August.
Relay squad members Jamie Bowie, Greg louden and Grant Plenderleith will meet over 400m – they set a National Record in the heat at Hampden.
Three Commonwealth Games finalists meet in the women’s hammer in the person of Susan McKelvie (6th at Hampden), Rachel Hunter (7th) and Myra Perkins (10th). World Juniors finalists Kimberley Reed will challenge that trio.
There is a club element to the weekend, too, with points awarded for places to athletes from the same club across the various event groups for overall tables.
Action starts at Kilmarnock at 12.45pm on Saturday and Sunday with most of the finals on the second day.
The following week there is a huge entry for the Scottish Age Group Champs with almost 1100 athletes from U13 to U20 entered for the event at Aberdeen Sports Village.
Start-lists for Kilmarnock are on www.scottishathletics.org.uk
*Wheelchair racer Meggan Dawson-Farrell is set to compete at Kilmarnock after winning gold in the IWAS World Juniors
Dawson-Farrell was seventh in the Commonwealth final at Hampden and then performed well in Stoke. Sammi Kinghorn misses out with GB duty next week in Swansea at the IPC Europeans along with four other Scots.
This weekend’s event at Kilmarnock will see the trialling of a special device to aid hearing-impaired athletes. The ‘traffic lightbulb blocks’ will be used while other sprinters react to the starter’s pistol.
