With defending champion Andrew Butchart expected to miss the event, Callum Hawkins will be the odds-on favourite to match brother Derek by claiming a second Scottish Cross Country individual title at this weekend’s national championships.

Butchart’s withdrawal from last weekend’s Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix sparked considerable debate in the athletics community with speculation that he had withdrawn from the 5000m to pave the way for victory for Mo Farah in his last indoor race.

However the Olympic 5000m finalist, who only became a full-time athlete last year, has also undertaken a hefty but highly productive schedule in recent weeks, surprising himself by running 3:54.23 for the mile in the course of an extended trip to the USA during which he also set new Scottish two mile and 3000m indoor records.

The timing of the Lindsay’s National Cross Country at Falkirk looks to be fitting well in between trips to Japan and the USA for Hawkins, though, while he would, in any case, have every reason to believe he could reclaim the title after beating team captain Butchart to the bronze medal when the pair ran for Great Britain at the European Championships and putting in a stunning front-running effort to kick off the New Year at the Edinburgh International Cross Country in January when he left Farah trailing.

As the senior women race over the same distance, 10K, as the men for the first time, another Scottish Olympian, Beth Potter, is expected to defend the title she won for a second time last year and, in spite of having recently widened her focus to triathlon, will go in as favourite.

In a year in which barely a week has elapsed without a Scottish athletics record being broken, the grassroots of the sport is playing its part with the biggest ever entry since the nationals became a combined event during the 1993/94 season with a total of 2330 athletes listed.

Just days after Laura Muir broke yet another of double Olympic gold medallist Kelly Holmes’ records in the 1000m at that Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix, that reflects a general sense of excitement within the sport in Scotland that is the result of development of a club scene which is producing a lengthy roll call of top class competitors as Mark Munro, Scottish Athletics’ chief executive observed.

“Once again the National Cross Country continues to be the crown jewels of our winter season,’ he said.

“I’m delighted to see the greatest ever number of entries in 24 years of combined championships for men and women. In particular, it’s fantastic to see the Senior Women’s race growing year after year – it’s not so long ago that figure was close to 200 and now it is almost at 400.

“There will be some terrific racing across all age groups this year with some very competitive fields.

“In recent years we’ve seen Olympians like Beth Potter, Freya Ross, Andy Butchart, Callum Hawkins and Derek Hawkins all win this event and Laura Muir won the U20 title five years ago.”