SHARP POINTS TO A DOUBLE

Scot plans to be top Brit and a Eurocrat

LYNSEY SHARP is ready to emerge as the best in Britain today before setting her sights on recapturing her European 800 metres crown.

The 27-year-old will face stern competition for domestic supremacy at the UK Championships, with fellow Scot Laura Muir unexpectedly joining the battle in Birmingham as both won their heats yesterday to advance into the final.

Sharp was left devastated by a first-round exit in April’s Commonwealth Games in Australia but returned to her Californian base to recover and regroup.

She now intends to give Muir — who seized her Scottish record — and the rest of a deep home contingent a run for their money and secure the top-two finish required for automatic selection for the European Championships in Berlin next month.

‘It’s been an interesting start to the year,’ admitted Sharp. ‘Things weren’t really 100 per cent for a few months. But I feel it’s coming together now. It’s just been typical health things.

‘In Australia, it started a week out from when I went into the village. It’s taken a couple of months to get back to 100 per cent. At the time, I wasn’t firing on all cylinders but I am now.’

Muir is understood to have informed British Athletics that she will consider an 800-1,500 double in Berlin despite highly problematic scheduling. Regardless, the double world-indoor medallist will be a useful benchmark for Sharp, who sees her peak years lying ahead.

‘It was a long time from the Commonwealths and it’s a long time from now to the Euros, four or five weeks,’ she said. ‘I have some good races coming up in July. I hope it will all go to plan now.’

The first day at the Championships brought four Scottish medals, with Chris Bennett rebounding from his own poor Commonwealths and shaking off a knee injury to book his Euro ticket with silver in the hammer behind Nick Miller.

‘This felt good,’ said Bennett. ‘It’s the first time I’ve automatically qualified for a major competition, so it’s nice not to have to rely on an invite or the selectors.’

Another Scot, Mark Dry, the Gold Coast bronze medallist, was again third but is to undergo hip surgery that will rule him out of Berlin.

Glasgow’s Nick Percy landed discus bronze, with Nikki Manson scoring an outdoor best of 1.89m to come third in the women’s high jump.

Elsewhere, English pair Reece Prescod and Dina Asher-Smith struck gold in the men’s and women’s 100m finals.

Prescod said: ‘Everyone now knows me as a racer — I turn up for the occasion and I do what I need to do to win.

‘I have been looking to role models in other sports. I have been watching Anthony Joshua and a few other top guys and taking bits of what they say about mentality.

‘I have seen him perform on the big stage in boxing and even though it is a different field it is about embracing that — training hard, and coming to the championships and doing what you need to.’

Asher-Smith ran a championship record 10.97sec to win the women’s sprint title, while Morgan Lake did likewise to take the high jump crown with a leap of 1.97m.

Earlier, former Olympic and world 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu, 34, announced her retirement.