Saucony British Milers’ Club Grand Prix in Manchester this weekend features strong fields led by Judd, Oliver Dustin and Alex Botterill

Jess Judd will hone her preparations for the Olympic 10,000m trials on June 5 by sharpening her speed over 1500m at the Saucony British Milers’ Club Grand Prix at Sportcity, Manchester, on Saturday (May 29), writes Kevin Fahey.

The 26-year-old has run personal bests recently at 5000m with 15:06.02 and 10,000m with 31:25.98 in the US recently.  The former is inside the Olympic qualifying standard but the latter is less than a second outside – something she will hope to rectify in Birmingham next week.

Of particular significance was that 5000m time as it was inside the Olympic Games qualifying standard of 15:10.00; conversely Judd fell an agonising 0.98secs short of the standard for the longer distance.

This will be Judd’s second BMC race of the season having already won the 3000m in 8:52.73 at the Gold Standard meeting at the University of Birmingham last month.

Judd faces Erin Wallace and Jennifer Walsh, among others.

Oliver Dustin has fond memories of Sportcity as it was on this track two years ago that he claimed his first BMC Grand Prix A-race victory. The Border Harrier went on to clock an 800m PB of 1:46.84 to win the Watford GP B race before leading Britain to a clean sweep of the medals at the European Under-20 Championships.

City of York’s Alex Botterill is sure to provide a stern challenge. The 21-year-old is fresh from victory at the Manchester Invitational and goes into Saturday’s race in good form.

Alex Botterill: "Tactically it was terrible as I let people come round me so I have plenty to work on over the next few races. But it was another 1:46 so I am very happy with that."

? @James_Athletics pic.twitter.com/bdbWK9sH1F

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) May 27, 2021

Another leading under-23 runner, 21-year-old Josh Lay, comes into the race on the back of a 4:05 road mile in the Boston Games last weekend and has also set his sights on clipping his lifetime best of 1:46.78.

The withdrawal of in-form Ellie Baker in order to represent Britain at the European Team Championships in Poland has left the women’s 800m A race wide open.

Now the race looks like being a duel between the likes of Kirsty Fraser (2:03.45), Katy Brown (2:02.33), Mhairi Hendry (2:01.30) and Amy Griffiths (2:04.10).

Also in the mix will be Ireland’s Jenna Bromell, who has already notched up a PB of 2:03.68 this season and is now targeting 2:01.

The men’s 1500m is shaping up to be a tasty affair with dual 2018 Sportcity and 2019 Trafford Grand Prix A winner Ossama Meslek heading the field.

The Leeds City athlete clocked 3:44.05 in the Loughborough International last weekend and ran 1:49.87 at the Trafford Grand Prix before that.

Talented Shaftesbury Barnet junior Henry McLuckie is also chasing a sub-3:40 clocking and the 19-year-old already tops the 2021 UK under-20 rankings after posting a PB of 3:40.82 at the Manchester Invitational this week.

Also worth watching in the field are junior internationals Thomas Keen (4:41.44) and Rory Leonard (3:44.75) plus improving John Howorth (3:44.53).

As always there is a huge turn-out for the 5000m races with the A races boasting the likes of Ellis Cross (13:52.54) and Hugo Milner (13:55.91) plus under-23 runners Eleanor Bolton (15:58.38) and Becky Briggs (17:02.26) in the women’s field.

Welsh runners Jonathan Hopkins of Swansea (8:30.52) and Cardiff’s Ieuan Thomas (8:30.16) head a strong field for the men’s 3000m steeplechase with William Battershill (8:44.36) and Ben Nagy (8:50.14) also entered.

The 400m races, staged with the support of British Athletics, have again attracted some decent athletes including American Paul Dedewo, Owen Smith and Lee Thompson, all of whom are chasing 46 seconds.

British international Victoria Ohuruogu is among the entries for the women’s field and is seeking to improve upon her season’s best of 53.25 while Amy Hillyard wants to better her PB of 52.68 and get close to that 52 seconds milestone.

Stadium tickets are sold out but you can watch the action on a live stream from 4pm (BST) – CLICK HERE