Guy Learmonth is to spearhead an untested Scotland team at next month's Sainsbury's International Match in Glasgow after selectors were left with few proven names from which to choose, writes Mark Woods.
With Chris O'Hare about to return to the United States, and Lynsey Sharp and Eilidh Child in training camps elsewhere, the new head coach Rodger Harkins will count on only one Great Britain internationalist - the relay specialist Jamie Bowie - as he prepares a side to take on Great Britain & Northern Ireland, France and Germany at the Emirates Arena on January 24.
Young prospects Kirsten McAslen and Zoey Clark will be among those handed a chance to pick up valuable experience against some of the sport's bigger names. Sarah Warnock, Ray Bobrownicki, Diane Ramsay, Greg Louden and Grant Plenderleith are others with Glasgow 2014 experience named so far.
"There are one or two who missed out on the Commonwealth Games who will see what it took last summer to qualify and will be starting to think about Gold Coast 2018," said Harkins. "It is a chance for them, and indeed all the athletes, to push themselves forward. I am hoping that we will see some good signs of individual development.
"For the athletics public in Scotland, I think it is a good opportunity to see people they know from our clubs and from national events competing in an international context. That should be exciting as we take on three strong countries in GB, France and Germany."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article