SUPER8 2010: Beach boy Collins to challenge Brits

By Ben Baker, Sportsbeat, in Glasgow

KIM Collins steps off the beach and back onto the track in Glasgow's Super8 tonight and is looking to prove a point.

BIG NAME: Kim Collins, the world 100m champion in 2003, is among the international names guesting at this year's Super8 in Glasgow (Action Images)

The former 100m world champion, who also won Commonwealth Games gold in 2002, retired from international competition last year to spend more time in his Caribbean home but will replace injured world long champion Dwight Phillips, who was due to take part over the blue-riband sprint distance.

Collins has run a season's best 10.20 seconds - and British sprinters Mark Lewis-Francis, Craig Pickering and Christian Malcolm won't be keen on getting beaten by a 34-year old no longer in full-time training.

"It's always good to compete, regardless of where the competition takes you," said Collins. "I love the sport and that's the major thing for me, to do it as much and as long as I can.

"Maybe another year or two, as long my body continues to hold up, I will continue to do that."

Lewis-Francis and Pickering were both named in the 4x100m relay squad for this month's European Championships yesterday while Christian Malcolm, who will captain the Cardiff team in Glasgow, has also been selected to run the 200m.

Meanwhile, Scottish sprinter Kris Robertson is just hoping a chance to run against the best in Britain will put him in contention for October's Commonwealth Games.

Robertson, whose lifetime best over the 400m stands at 46.37 seconds, must clock 45.55 secs to match the qualifying time for the Scottish Commonwealth Games team.

And after running within seven tenths of his lifetime's best in Poland last month, he believes the stage is set for him to beat the magic mark in Scotstoun.

"I'm in really good form at the moment and I am really pleased with how I have been running," said Robertson.

"I have had three races so far and already I am not very far off my personal best even at this early stage of the season.

"I have opened my season the fastest I have been and I am really excited about just how fast I can go right now.

"In my last race out in Poland I ran 46.44 secs which I was really happy with because with me it is about dipping under 46 seconds as soon as I can.

"All this is working towards the Commonwealth Games and I think that I have a good chance and I am running well, so why not? My confidence is high and I believe I can do it."

Meanwhile, Chris Baillie may have been forced to play second fiddle to British team-mates Will Sharman and Andy Turner recently but the 110m hurdler is keen to cause a shock and capture the sizeable scalp of four-time American world champion Allen Johnson.

Baillie, who will be joined in the Glasgow team by guesting American women's sprint hurdler Lolo Jones, believes his homecoming will prove the perfect platform lay down a marker ahead of Delhi.

"I am a Glasgow boy, being born in Old Kilpatrick, so it's nice to be back," said.

"There are some really good hurdlers here, including Allen Johnson who I have run against a few times - so I will have to be at the top of my game and hopefully that will lift me.

"It is the first chance I have had in a long time to run in front of my home crowd, so hopefully they can get behind me and bring some home success."