Sayers' sights set on eight in a row

Goldie Sayers already has a place in the record books as one of six athletes to have won seven successive titles in the same event in the 130-year history of the principal annual British track and field championships – the UK Championships as is, the AAA and Women's AAA Championships as were. This weekend in Birmingham the Cambridgeshire javelin thrower has the opportunity to stand apart from the all-time greats of British athletics as the first ever eight-in-a-row national champion.

Judging by her form last weekend at the European Team Championships in Bergen, where she finished in between Olympic medallists Christine Obergfoll of Germany and Russian Mariya Abukumova as runner-up, Sayers will start as one of the firmest of favourites over the three days of the Aviva European Trials and UK Championships, which open this evening. It would be a shock if the 27-year-old British record holder were to fail to go one better than the seven-on-the-trot merchants who have gone before her.

"It would give me a fantastic boost and really set me up for the European Championships," Sayers said. "The only downside is that I am competing on Sunday, the same day as the football, so I am not sure there will be much of a crowd." The action starts at 5pm today but Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu will miss the women's 400m heats because of a quadriceps injury that may yet threaten her appearance in next month's European Championships.