Saturday’s event sees leading athletes like Jess Judd, Kyle Langford, Ellie Baker and Piers Copeland in action

Reece Sharman-Newell and Olympian Jess Judd are two of the most interesting entries for what is shaping up to be a cracking night of athletics at the Saucony British Milers’ Club International Grand Prix at the Watford Woodside Arena on Saturday (June 11).

Sharman-Newell, still only 19, is the fastest man in the field after a sizzling personal best of 1:45.56 at the Bryan Clay Invitational meeting in California, in April.

That represents a huge improvement on his 2021 best of 1:51.93 and lifted him to sixth in the UK rankings for 2022, though Sharman-Newell remarkably still finds himself only third in the Basingstoke & Mid Hants club rankings behind Thomas Staines (1:45.28) and Ben Pattison (1:45.44).

How he would love to nudge ahead of those two in what will be the Colorado State University student’s first race back in Britain and claim his first maiden BMC Grand Prix A victory.

Not that Sharman-Newell will have the race all his own way. Watford-born fellow GB international Kyle Langford, currently eighth on the 2022 UK rankings over 800m with 1:46.11, is also entered after a successful spell racing in America and is sure to get big support from the local athletics fraternity.

Langford also beat Pattison over 800m at the Bryggen Sports Manchester Continental Tour Silver meeting last week.

Leading Irish runner Mark English (1:44.71) and the experienced Guy Learmonth (1:44.73)  are also in the line-up plus Rocco Zaman-Browne, who was third at the Birmingham Uni Grand Prix.

While Sharman-Newell is looking to stake his claim for an international vest this summer Judd, who doubled up in the 5000m and 10,000m at Tokyo last year, has already got her 2022 summer campaign off to a great start by winning the British 10,000m Championships to book her place in the team for the World Championships in America.

Judd has been a big supporter of the BMC Grand Prix series, which this year is offering a £16,000-£22,000 prize fund for each of the five high-profile meetings, and on Saturday will step down to the 1500m to sharpen up her speed.

As for in-form Judd she is the fastest in the field for the 1500m but certainly won’t have things her own way either as the entry includes a strong overseas presence from Brazil to New Zealand.

“We have a strong entry from Australia and New Zealand as their athletes are now basing themselves in Europe to prepare for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham later this summer,” added Tim Brennan. “For them the Watford meeting is a great opportunity take on some of the best young British runners and get a really competitive, fast race.

“We also have a strong contingent from Brazil including some Pan American champions so that is another big boost for the meeting.”

Domestically Ellie Baker is another high quality addition to the field. A winner over 1500m at Sport City, Baker, the BMC Points Series winner last year, ran a season’s best of 2:01.91 to finish third in the Irena Szewinska memorial meeting in Poland last weekend.

Jenny Selman, who won the 800m at Sport City, steps up for the longer distance having already run 4:12.25 this season and will be looking towards her lifetime best of 4:11.48 set last year.

Jenny Nesbitt, who earlier this week was named in the Wales squad to run the 5000m at the Commonwealth Games, steps down for some sharpening work, while Hannah Nuttall, Jenny Walsh and top junior 800m runner Abigail Ives are also entered.

Piers Copeland heads a competitive entry for the men’s 1500m and should be in high spirits after being named in the Wales team for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

He has yet to run a 1500m outdoors this summer – he was a DNF at the Diamond League at Birmingham after falling over and his 3:40.24 split was en route to a 3:54.91 mile at Highgate when he finished runner-up.

But he ran 3:36.12 indoors in February and in the build-up to Birmingham will be wanting to show the sort of form that saw him record a lifetime best of 3:34.62 last year and saw him ranked sixth in the UK in 2021.

But again he will face strong opposition with seven sub-3:40 men entered including, on paper at least, the fastest man in the field this year outdoors in James West who clocked 3:38.44 in the Prefontaine Classic in May.

Also in the A race are sub 3:40 men Kane Elliott, John Howorth and Max Wharton while the Australian pair of Will Lewis and Matthew Hussey are seeking to break 3:40 for the first time.

There is a good entry for the women’s 3000m steeplechase so Welsh No.1 Kate Seary and Lasswade’s Sarah Tait will both be hoping to attack lifetime bests of 9:55.96 and 10:00.49 respectively.

“There is quite an international feel to the race so we could be in for a very good race,” added Brennan.

Australian Georgia Winkcup (PB 9:37.43) is chasing 9:30 and can expect a good contest with fellow Aussie Stella Radford (9:45.72) and the Brazilian pair of Tatiane Da Silva (9:36.43) and Simone Ferraz (9:45.15). There are also women from Latvia, Sweden and Slovenia to underline the international status of the Grand Prix series.

The 5000m races have also been heavily over-subscribed with three men’s events and a very competitive-looking women’s race. Rotherham’s Calli Thackery is a late addition to the women’s field and she has targeted a sub-15:10 time so it will be interesting if any of her rivals take up that challenge. Steph Twell, Morag Miller, Hannah Irwin and Mhairi MacLennan are also entered.

The men’s entry is headed by Brazilian Ederson Vilela Pereira (13:23.24) and he is chasing a time of 13:20 so could be a good target for the likes of Mahamed Mahamed, Rory Leonard and David Mullarkey.

Menai’s Osian Perrin, who is top of the UK under-20 rankings with a season’s best of 13:54.03, will also be looking to drop inside that World Under-20 Championships qualifying standard of 13:55.00 again.

He will be one of the many developing young middle-distance runners who will be looking to run qualifying standards for the World Under-20 and European Under-18 Championships in Colombia and Israel respectively.

That is why UK Athletics has incorporated official trials for the under-20 and under-18s championships. The meeting is also part of the World Continental Tour.

“We have had to disappoint a lot of people as this meeting has proved once again to be so popular with fantastic strength in depth,” said Brennan.

Well over 500 entries were initially received but with rejections and withdrawals the total will be close to around 400 on the day competing in 30 races in four-and-a-half hours.

The meeting will start at 5.30pm and spectator tickets can be bought on the gate for £10 or £6 in advance via the website at: www.britishmilersclub.com. Children under 12 are free and refreshments will be available.