Athletics: Kim Collins and Meseret Defar bound for Scotland

TWO world-class athletes have confirmed their intention to compete in Scotland next month, with ex-world 100 metres champion Kim Collins set to appear at the British Athletics International Match at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena and two-time Olympic 5,000m gold medallist Meseret Defar due to compete at the Bupa Edinburgh XCountry.

TWO world-class athletes have confirmed their intention to compete in Scotland next month, with ex-world 100 metres champion Kim Collins set to appear at the British Athletics International Match at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena and two-time Olympic 5,000m gold medallist Meseret Defar due to compete at the Bupa Edinburgh XCountry.

Collins, the St Kitts and Nevis sprinter, will compete over both 60m and 200m for a Commonwealth Select team against athletes from Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the USA, Russia and Germany in Glasgow on 26 January. “I’m really excited to open my 2013 season by competing at the new Emirates Arena,” he said yesterday.

Defar will feature in the ­International Women’s 3km race, which is part of the IAAF Cross Country Permit Meeting, in Holyrood Park on 5 January.

The race – to be televised live by the BBC – will take place alongside a loaded match between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Team Europe and the United States.