Wigan's Emily Borthwick ready for UK test

The 24-year-old has enjoyed a flying start to her 2022 calendar.

Her latest outing came on Tuesday night, when she jumped 1.90m at the prestigious Banska Bystrica high jump meeting in Slovakia.

Already this year, the 24-year-old has cleared 1.95m in the Czech Republic, to beat a quality field including five of the world's top dozen.

Not only was it a personal best, it was also the new world leader for 2022 - and the fourth highest EVER jumped by a British athlete

Next up is Saturday's World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting – at the Utilita Arena.

And the Wigan & District athlete, who was eighth in the European Indoor Championships 12 months ago, is champing at the bit to show how much higher she can go.

“I’m super-excited to compete against one of the greatest high jumpers of all time at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham, ” she said.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the year.

“My performances so far have given me huge confidence as I continue to build towards the UK Athletics Indoor Championships and the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade in March.

"And I look forward to seeing how much further I can push myself and how much higher I can jump.”

Lasitskene, the reigning world indoor champion, has an indoor best of 2.05m.

She said: “I have two global titles to defend in 2022 and this competition is great preparation for the first of those, the World Indoor Championships.

"I won the 2018 world indoor title at this venue and the noise from the crowd was incredible.

"We’ve had to compete in silence at many events over the last two years and I’m looking forward to returning to a packed arena in Birmingham.”

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