A record number of people will be participating in the Swindon Harriers’ Mark Cawte Open at the County Ground this weekend.

400 track and field athletes, beating the previous record of 371, from over 20 clubs across the South West will be competing at the County Ground this Sunday in the event hosted annually by Swindon Harriers in the spring.

John Dill, who helped organise the event, said: “It is great to see such a response for a meeting held in honour of our former club statistician Mark Cawte, who died far too young, especially as there is plenty of competition from other open meetings.

“And the forecast doesn’t look too bad either with a bright, clear day predicted so that will be very welcome for everyone.”

The meeting includes the rarely run classic mile distance and the E race should see a real battle for host club bragging rights with the likes of Matt Woodward, Fletcher Hart, Harry Edwards, Max Harrison-Tosatto and Anubis Molina-Zekri all entered.

The meeting starts at 10 am with the 300-metre hurdles on the track and in the field the high jump, shot and hammer while the final events of the day will be the long jump, shot and javelin at 4 pm.