By Owen Morgan
Welsh athletes will be out in force at the Manchester International athletics meeting on Wednesday night.
As well as a Wales national team, there will be a strong contingent of Welsh athletes in the Great Britain Juniors team, League Select and two All Star Select teams, who will compete against England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Welsh throwing will be particularly well represented by a number of athletes who have enjoyed a season of titles, records and representative honours.
Among those taking part will be Andover’s Tom Hewson, fresh from making his Great Britain senior team debut in the javelin at last week’s European Team Championships in Poland.
Hewson is joined in the Great Britain Juniors team by Pembrokeshire’s James Tomlinson, who has broken his personal best twice this season and captained the GB team at the European Under-20 Championships.
The British Athletics League/UK Women’s Athletics League Select team features hammer thrower Osian Jones.
The Liverpool Harrier recently extended his Welsh record twice in the space of 48 hours at the Leiria International Throws event in Portugal.
Jones will face the man who pipped him to the Welsh hammer title last month – Cardiff’s Jac Palmer, who took the honours with a winning throw of 70.01m, his first time over the 70m barrier.
The hammer competition will be one of the highlights of the high quality event in Manchester with four of the five top ranked throwers in the UK taking part.
The women’s hammer competition will feature Amber Simpson, who will be representing the Wales national team.
Deeside’s Simpson has enjoyed an excellent season on the American collegiate circuit, consistently throwing over 60 metres and taking her PB out to 61.03m
The Wales team will also feature the likes of Adele Nicoll, who has this season thrown new personal bests in the shot and discus, as well as winning a number of titles including the Welsh senior discus title and a shot put bronze medal at the British Indoor Championships.
Nicoll will face compatriot and Paralympic bronze medallist Sabrina Fortune, who will be representing the All Stars in the shot, while multiple world and Paralympic champion Aled Davies will throw in the men’s shot for the All Stars.
On the track, the Welsh team will see Cardiff sprinter Sam Gordon hoping to following up his success at the Belfast International in the 100m match race.
A number of other Welsh sprinters will feature in the guest 100m, including Kristian Jones, Joshua Brown, Makoye Kampengal and Arron Jones, who will form part of the Wales 4x100m team where they will run against a familiar face in the shape of Owain Lloyd Hughes, who also represents GB Juniors in the 4x100m.
Another Welsh sprinter, Rhys Jones, will represent Wales in the 100m ambulant race, while World Junior Para Championships double silver medallist Kirsty Taylor goes in the women’s race.
Cardiff’s Steve Morris, who recently broke the British T20 mile record, will compete in the 1500m para race.
The women’s 800m will see World Championship 4x400m bronze medallist Seren Bundy Davies continue her comeback from long term injury for the All Star Select.
Among those she will be up against is double Welsh 800m and 1500m champion Jade Williams, of Amman Valley Harriers.
The full line-ups for all the teams competing at Wednesday’s international can be found on the England Athletics website, while you can watch the action on the runjumpthrow.com site.