CHAMPION Paralympic track star Owen Miller will go on the run for global glory next month after being selected for the World Para Athletics Championships.

The West Fife athlete will travel to Kobe, Japan, with the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team that will compete at the event, which runs between May 17-25.

He is one of two Scots, alongside T54 classification 400 metre, 800m and 1500m competitor, Melanie Woods, that are in the 18-strong squad.

T20 1500m runner Owen, 32, will return to Japan almost three years on from his stunning triumph in the delayed Tokyo Paralympic Games.

That came during the Fife AC member's Paralympic debut, and he is bidding to participate in his second Games later this summer, when Paris plays host between August 28 to September 8.

Next month's event will, in a squad announcement made by British Athletics, "fulfil UK Athletics' aim to provide qualification opportunities and global international competition opportunities to support medal success at the 2024 Paralympic Games only."

Athletes who obtained a qualification slot through previous allocation methods, such as finishing in the top four at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships, were only considered for selection this time round "in the exceptional circumstances set out in the policy".

Those included Ben Sandilands, a fellow Fife AC athlete, who stormed to T20 1500m gold last July in a race that saw Owen finish in seventh.

The Kobe competition will be third World Para Athletics Championship that Dunfermline-born Owen has taken part in, having ran in his first in Dubai in 2019.

British Athletics' head of Paralympic performance, Tom Paulson, said: "This is a unique championships taking place a couple of months out from the Paralympic Games, with Paris the main focus for athletes this season.

"However, we have a very strong squad heading out to Japan who will be targeting world success.

"We have selected a team which balances the aims of providing qualification opportunities to achieve quota slots at the Paralympic Games for many athletes on the team, while also supporting those medallists from last year’s Championships who have outlined – whilst satisfying the selection panel – that competing in Kobe at these Championships is a vital part of their preparation for Paris.

"I am looking forward to seeing how all the athletes perform in Japan next month."

Last year, both Owen and Ben were offered membership to UK Sport’s Paralympic World Class Programme for 2023/24, a National Lottery funded initiative that supports the delivery of success at the Paralympics and other major championships.

They were offered places in the ‘podium’ level of the programme, with athletes nominated to further the aim of UK Athletics to win medals at the 2024 and 2028 Paralympic Games.