ELDERSLIE’S Callum Hawkins will take on the world’s best as he makes his World Athletics Championships debut on Sunday.

The Kilbarchan AAC athlete was pre-selected for the event in December after his ninth placed finish in the Marathon at the Rio Olympics.

Hawkins is one of three Brits taking part in the Marathon, with fellow Scot Robbie Simpson also set to pound the streets of London.

The 25-year-old has continued his rich vein of form since Rio. In October he again won the Great Scottish Run in a time of 1:00:24. This would have been a new Scottish half-marathon record, but the race was found to be 150m too short, which invalidated the result.

However he didn’t take long to retake the record when he ran the Kagawa Marugame International in Japan in a time of one hour flat in February.

In January he became the first Brit to beat Mo Farah for seven years at the Great Edinburgh International Cross Country race.

Hawkins finished second, leading for most of the race, but was out-sprinted by Leonard Korir in the final straight.

And now Hawkins is targeting an improvement on his Rio placing in London.

He said: “Hopefully at the Worlds I can improve on what I did at the Olympics. I can’t imagine what the crowds at the World Championships in London are going to be like.

“To have such a big event in your home country, in the capital, will be incredible.”