Rugby athlete Katharine Merry will make her first track appearance in the region since her bronze medal success at the Sydney Olympic Games this weekend.

She will be among a star-studded line up at the Norwich Union Indoor Grand Prix at the Birmingham National Indoor Arena on Sunday.

Merry (right), who is now based in Cardiff, had not originally planned to compete in the indoor season this year, but was tempted by the chance to appear before her home crowd.

She insists she will not be running in the World Indoor Championships in Portugal next month despite breaking the British indoor 400m record at her first ever attempt last weekend.

By coming home in 51.54 she sliced 0.15 the previous record held by Phylis Smith. Merry, from Dunchurch will face AAA champion Catherine Murphy, Deon Hemmings of Jamaica and Olabisi Afolabi from Nigeria.

Some other races promise to be very exciting as runners compete for world championship spaces.

Mark Lewis-Francis and Christian Malcolm will be head-to-head in the 60m, while the 400m men’s race will be a battle between reigning World Indoor Champion Jamie Baulch and Mark Hylton