GB and Northern Ireland field a number of world and national record-holders in Toruń in the major masters event of the winter

Some 330 British athletes are in action this coming week (March 17-23) at the European Masters Indoor Championships in Toruń in Poland and it also contains a marathon, cross-country and the outdoor throws.

Britain are bound to be among the top few nations and likely be vying with hosts Poland (1010 entries) and Germany (418) at the top of the medal table.

The UKs most famous athlete entered is new to the masters championships scene but not to championship racing Dwain Chambers.

The 2010 world indoor and 2009 European indoor 60m champion is now in the M45 category in which he set a world age group record of 6.81 in January. He ran 6.89 a couple of times when he competed in the UK Championships last month.

Curiously, though one athlete, Stefan Wnorowski, has given a quicker seeding time of 6.80 while former record setter, Swedens Lion Martinez (6.92), will again be challenging for medals.

Paul Forbes, who holds the M65 800m (2:15.30) world record, has a huge time advantage in the 800m and 1500m and also goes in the 3000m.

Fellow Scot John Thomson, who was second to Forbes in last years European outdoors 1500m, might well be his nearest challenge though it is notable that Forbes has yet to complete a track race this summer and has only completed parkruns and has yet to declare for Poland.

Though she won multiple golds in the World Masters Championships, Clare Elms makes her first appearance in the European event since winning a W45 quadruple in Italy in 2009 and she goes for the same four events 800m, 1500m, 3000m and cross-country as she did in Ancona. She has already set world W60 indoor marks at 1500m and mile this winter.

Steve Peters, the famous sports psychologist and author of The Chimp Paradox, is a more continual competitor in masters events and he also competed back in 2009 winning the M55 200m and 400m and he has a big time advantage in the M70s this year in those events and also competes in the 60m where he was second 15 years ago.

Rob McHarg has bettered the European M60 800m mark this winter with a 2:11.60 clocking and has come close on a couple of other occasions too to Anselm LeBournes 2:11.20 world record and is also favourite for the 1500m where European outdoor and world indoor champion Dave Clarke might be his closest challenger.

Other Britons who should challenge for gold medals in the middle-distances are Zoe Doyle, who has set a W45 UK 800m mark of 2:15.87 this winter and also goes in the 1500m, M45 Kojo Kyereme, a former world M40 10,000m champion, M55 Mark Symes, who won M50 gold at 1500m in 2022, and Tony OBrien, who won the M50 world masters 3000m last winter.

The big favourite for the M35 800m is local athlete Adam Czerwinski, who ran in the European Indoors 1500m in 2021 and has a sub 3:40 PB at the longer event but has been inside 1:50 this winter at 800m and could challenge Nico Motchebons 1:48.92 world record.

The most famous Pole competing though is Wanda Panfil. The former London Marathon winner won the world marathon title in Tokyo in 1991. She competes in the cross-country and will be in the W55-65 combined race where she lines up against Elms and 2023 AW master of the year Sue McDonald, who is in the W55 category and also entered in the marathon here.

Irish middle distance hopes are led by M70 Joe Gough and W55 Annette Kealy.

M50 Joe Appiah and M45 Mensah Elliott should again dominate their hurdles events where they already own the fastest marks of all-time in their age groups.

Don Brown, who has not competed internationally since 2019 when he was European outdoor champion at 100m, 200m and hurdles, and not at all since 2020, competes at 60m and 60m hurdles as he debuts in the M60 category.

W50 Paula Williams set a UK hurdles mark of 9.59 at the British Championships and she starts favourite here and also goes in the 60m, shot and javelin with good medal chances.

In the 60m, where she set a UK mark of 8.24 at Lee Valley, she may be up against Yvette Henry who won the world W45 title last winter and has now moved up an age group but has yet to race in 2024.

Helen Godsell lost her W50 mark this winter but gained W70 European 60m (9.34) and 200m (31.87) records. In Toruń she faces Caroline Powell in those events with the latter yet to make her debut in the W70 category or race in 2024. However she ran 31.07 in her last 200m race in the European outdoors last summer. Powell also goes for the 400m where she is a huge favourite.

Darren Scott became the first European M55 to break 24 seconds indoors last week in Manchester and he starts favourite and also runs 60m where he could set a UK mark having missed it by 0.01 in Manchester with a 7.49.

Richard Beardsell was second in the World M40 400m at Toruń last year but now moves into the M45s and he looks within range of the British mark.

Commonwealth Games vaulter and multiple masters champion Irie Hill set a world W55 pole vault record of 3.15m in the British Championships and will be keen to improve her record although Finn Marja Eskelinen should push her all the way.

Jane Horder goes for the W65 60m, 60m hurdles and 200m triple. She won world titles over the two shorter events last winter and she won the European outdoor title over 200m last summer.

Britain has a good chance of winning medals in the first two events of the programme on Sunday with the 2019 European champion Jo Willoughby one of the favourites for the W60 long jump and 2.11m performer Tom Nichols top ranked in the M35 high jump.