THE traditional New Year sprint will take place this weekend on Saturday July 30 and Sunday July 31 at the newly refurbished Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh.

The event starts with the 800m open handicap heats at 11.15am and culminates with the famous sprint to be contested over 110m by a field of 67 at 3pm on the Sunday.

Initial handicaps were set in January, but they’ve since been revised in the light of performances at this year’s Borders Games meetings so far and other athletics events and might well be adjusted again at the weekend if appropriate.

And as usual, a number of Borderers are due to take part in the world-famous handicap event.

The draw for the heats has been made and Tweed Leader Jed Track Athletics Club’s Gordon Armstrong (7.5m) will run in Heat 1 along with teammate Scott Tindle (5m) and Jedburgh’s Scott Elliot (20m).

Jedburgh’s Shellee Fojick (18m) and Hawick’s Ross Borthwick (12.5m) will compete in heat two,

Hawick’s Ryan Elliot (7.5m) will run in heat four and Selkirk’s Colin Bruce (18m) will be in heat five.

Hawick’s Jai Patterson (12.5m) and Kelso’s John Fleming (13m) will run in heat six.

Hawick’s Ryan McMichan (12m) is in heat seven and Selkirk’s Craig Bruce (9m) will compete with Kelso’s Douglas Young (3.5m) in heat nine.

TLJT’s Janine Boyle, (7,5m) and Jedburgh’s Zoe Blair (19m) will run in heat 12.

The event first took place at Powderhall in Edinburgh in 1870 and its £5,000 first prize, £1,000 second prize and £500 third prize makes it the richest race in the open athletics calendar.

The event’s one-mile race will also return for the first time since 1970 and there will be a £1,000 bonus for the first scratch runner to complete it in less than four minutes.

Other races taking place over the weekend include the 800m Open Handicap, the 200m Open Handicap, the 90m Veterans Handicap, 90m Ladies Handicap and 90m Youths Handicap, 800m Youths Handicap, 200m Youths Handicap 9-13 years and the 200m Youths Handicap 13-16.

Other Borderers will be competing in these events.