17 December 2014.  One of the great Scottish middle-distance runners of all-time, Graham Williamson, still holds 3 Scottish national records, 2 native records and 4 under-20 records, set in the years 1978 to 1984 and surviving the test of time. Now, another Williamson is set to appear on the scene. Graham's son, Jamie Williamson, who was born in Macclesfield and has been resident in Germany, has opted to run for Scotland. 17-year-old Jamie, a first year under-20 in 2014, improved his 800 metres time this year from 1:58.50 to 1:51.83 and has bests of 50.22 at 400, 2:23.73 at 1000, 4:02.08 at 1500 and 8:47.91 at 3000 and we are sure he will make an impression in the Junior events in 2015. The full story of Graham's career can be read in our book, The Past Is a Foreign Country.

14 December 2014. Rhona Auckland has become the first Scot to win the European Under-23 Cross Country title with an outstanding victory at Samokov. Although Steph Twell won 2 Junior titles in 2007 and 2008, that was before she was recognised as Scottish, and therefore Rhona has become the first Scot ever to win any individual title at these championships since their inception in 1994. In the men's U23 race, Callum Hawkins fought with 3 Russian athletes for most of the way before dropping back and finishing 5th.

Both Rhona and Callum won team silver but Steph Twell was an excellent 7th in the senior race and won team gold.  Andrew Butchart and Jonathan Glen performed well on their international debuts with Andrew 35th in the senior men's race and Jonathan 46th in the junior men's race. Luke Caldwell completed the Scottish contingent, 5 places behind Butchart.

13 December 2014. Caitlin Edgar has bettered the Scottish under-17 record at the British Schools international at the Emirates this Saturday. Although 3rd behind Elizabeth Morland (4045), the impressive Ireland winner, Caitlin's score of 3611, if ratified, will remove Aileen Wilson's score of 3582, set at the same event 15 years ago. Scotland finished 3rd in all 4 age-groups with Holly McArthur the star performer, winning the U16 Girls with 3593 points.

12 December 2014.  Jayne Nisbet has followed fiancee James Campbell by announcing her retirement from high jumping. 

The winner of 10 Scottish senior high jump titles and 2 triple jump titles, Jayne overcame injuries to set an indoor high jump record of 1.87 metres this year. She then went on to qualify for the Commonwealth Games high jump final, where she finished 10th. Details of her career are set out here.

We wish Jayne well in her future career.

2 December 2014. 6 Scottish athletes have been selected for the European Cross Country Championships at Samokov, Bulgaria on 14 December. Andrew Butchart and Luke Caldwell are selected for the Senior Men, Stephanie Twell in the Senior Women, Callum Hawkins and Rhona Auckland (pictured by Bobby Gavin) in the Under 23s and Jonathan Glen in the Under 20 Men. 4 of the athletes competed at last year's championships at Belgrade, where Luke Caldwell was 5th and Callum Hawkins 7th in the gold-winning Under 23 team. Steph Twell was 15th woman and Rhona Auckland 7th U23. It will be Twell's 8th appearance at these championships, an event where she won the junior women's title in 2007 and 2008. Both Rhona and Callum will be making their 3rd appearance.

The event sees Andrew Butchart and Jonathan Glen representing Great Britain & Northern Ireland for the first time.

26 November 2014. Scottish javelin record-holder James Campbell has announced his retirement at the age of 26. He has improved the Scottish record from 70.80 to 80.38 metres and set 25 Scottish records from under-15 to senior level.

As a youth, he won a gold medal in the 2004 Commonwealth Youth Games and he was recognised as Scotland's Athlete of the Games. In 2006, he set the Scottish javelin record throwing a distance of 73.18 metres at the World Junior Championships in Beijing, ranking him 8th junior in the world. In 2009 Campbell improved his lifetime best to 76.71 to set the 6th National record of his career. At the Commonwealth Games trials, just weeks after he became UK Champion in 2010, James became only the 10th Briton and 3rd British Under 23 to ever throw over 80m recording a new Scottish National Record and a lifetime best of 80.38 metres. He was again over 80m in 2011 but serious shoulder injury kept him out of action in 2012 and 2013. He returned in 2014, throwing twice over 70m to gain selection for the Commonwealth Games, where he narrowly missed the cut for the the final.

We wish him well in his future endeavours.

21 November 2014. Ellie Greenwood was victorious at the IAU 100k World Championships at Doha, Qatar, winning the women's title in the fastest-ever time run by a Scot, 7:30:30. She finished almost 8 minutes ahead of Mochizuki of Japan to take her second world 100k title, having won in 2007. Joasia Zakrzewski was a superb 3rd in 7:42:03. In the men's race, Paul Giblin finished 11th in 6:56:14, becoming only the 3rd Scot to better 7 hours for the distance.

3 November 2014. Dumfries's Joasia Zakrzewski finished an outstanding 2nd in the World 50 kilometres road race at Doha, Qatar on Saturday. Emily Harrison of the USA was first woman home in 3:32:30 with Jo gaining the silver medal in 3:33:23 ahead of Canada's Catrin Jones in 3:37:57. It was Jo's 2nd silver medal at the event, having previously been runner-up in 2011. You can see the record of Scotland's ultra runners on our ultra distance page here.

21 October 2014. Kimberley Reed completes our 2014 track and field SATS Challenge winners by taking the Under-20 title by 17 points from Shaun Wyllie. Our 2 World Junior Championship representatives were out on their own at the front with a 350 points gap to the 3rd placed Jack Lawrie. The strength of hammer throwing at Under-20 level showed through with 5 hammer throwers in the top 20. See our top 20 here.

19 October 2014. Our Challenge rankings continue and one of the most closely-fought age-groups sees us head to Inverness where the British and Scottish under-17 shot champion, George Evans, has beaten off the challenge of Edinburgh's Josh Kerr and Banchory sprinter Alisha Rees to take the SATS Under-17 Challenge title. Although triumphing at UK level in the shot, George's discus throws scored highly as well to help him to the title. There was a strong showing from our under-17 middle-distance runners with several 800 metres runners featuring in the top 20. Photo of George (right) by Bobby Gavin. See the top 20 here.

12 October 2014. In a top 20 notable for the prominence of throwers, Pitreavie's Emma Rae tops our Under 15 SATS Challenge.  The Under 15 hammer record-holder led the way from Whitemoss's Holly McArthur and Inverness pole vaulter Andrew McFarlane, all of whom topped the 2000 points score.  10 throwers made the top 20, where the equivalent of an under-15 Power of 10 target earns 600 points. Bonus points were also given for performances at the British and Scottish Championships. Emma's success came by virtue of her 3 scoring performances all being over 7 metres better than the 44-metre UK standard. See the top 20 here.

7 October 2014. Edinburgh's young high jumper Owen Ashall has emerged the clear winner of the SATS Challenge Under 13 Rankings. The talented youngster, who sits 2nd in the UK high jump lists, was the only athlete in our lists to better 1000 points. Central AC provided 5 of the top 20, including their Scottish record-beating relay quartet, in these unique lists. The under-13 scoring is based around a score of 300 points for the equivalent of a top 10 Power of 10 UK ranking and is judged on the athlete's 3 best performances, with a bonus for medals at the Scottish Championships. See the top 20 here.

4 October 2014. Eilidh Child (right) is the winner of our 2014 SATS Challenge Rankings, our ranking of the top 100 Scottish athletes based on scoring their performances and taking into account their achievements at the major championships. She edged Lynsey Sharp (left) into 2nd place with Laura Muir finishing 3rd. Jax Thoirs was the top male athlete in 5th place, one spot ahead of Mark Dry (centre). The full rankings can be seen on the SATS Challenge page.

The tables will continue over the next two weeks with the age-group rankings and the road race rankings.

30 September 2014. New - The SATS Challenge Rankings: We rank the top 100 athletes in track and field in 2014, scored on our Performance Tables. Starting today: Positions 81-100, with Jack Lawrie, pictured right, in at 81. Over the next few days we'll gradually work down to our number one. And we'll follow it up with road running rankings and age-group rankings. Follow it here.  (Photo by Bobby Gavin)

Such is the nature of athletics these days, that League competition hardly gets a mention but it remains an important part of athletics competition the length and breadth of Great Britain. Delays in publishing scrutinised results can make the leagues easy to lose track of, so we've gathered the results of the league competition here, in the one place.

It was a successful year for Scottish clubs on the national scale, with Edinburgh AC winning the UK Women's League, Glasgow City AC gaining promotion to the British Men's League Premier Division, and Team Edinburgh (pictured) (a composite team of Edinburgh AC, Lasswade AC and Corstorphine AAC) winning the upper-age group of the UK Youth Development League.

Central AC held off the challenge of Aberdeen AAC to win the Scottish Men's League, while Edinburgh AC were clear winners of the Scottish Women's League.

Giffnock North AAC triumphed in the Central & South of Scotland League; Arbroath & District AC and Inverness Harriers took the senior men and women's titles respectively in the Petrofac League, while Edinburgh AC took the Forth Valley League, now extended to three divisions.

It was certainly a memorable year for Edinburgh AC as they won the Scottish Under 13/15 arm of the  UK Youth Development League and achieved a fine 4th place in the UK Final.

Here's the full detail of how the League positions turned out: 2014 League Results

Scottish Athletics' Track & Field Commission has ratified 70 performances from the summer season as Scottish records, including a near re-writing of the Scottish all-comers' records following the IAAF Diamond League meeting and Commonwealth Games at Hampden Park.

The updated record lists can be seen on the Records page of this website. The full list of ratified performances are:

At Pitreavie, Scottish Relay Championships, 15 June: 4x100 Relay (U13 Girls) - 53.46 Central AC

3x800 Relay (U15 Girls) - 7:00.08 Giffnock North AAC.

At Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scottish Schools Championships, 21 June: Pole Vault (U15 Boys) - 3.70 Andrew McFarlane

At Bedford, England Athletics Championships, 21 June: Pole Vault (U20 Women) - 3.85 Anna Gordon. 

At Grangemouth, Open Graded Meeting, 2 July: Indoor Pole Vault (National/Native) - 5.61 Jax Thoirs (& 5.40). 

At Paris, France, IAAF Diamond League, 5 July: National record w1500 Laura Muir 4:00.07.

At Hampden Park, Glasgow Grand Prix, 11 July: All-comers records 100 Kemar Bailey-Cole JAM 10.03, then Nickel Ashmeade JAM 9.97/+0.3 & Michael Rodgers USA 9.97. 5000 Hagos Gebrhiwet ETH 13:11.09. 110H William Sharman ENG 13.21/+0.7. 400H Javier Culson PUR 48.35. SP Tom Walsh NZL 21.23 & Reese Hoffa USA 21.67. w400 Francena McCorory USA 49.93. w1500 Sifan Hassan NED 4:00.67. w400H Eilidh Child SCO 54.39. wLJ Tianna Bartoletta USA 6.97/+0.3 & 6.98/+1.2. w4x100 GBR (Asha Philip, Ashleigh Nelson, Jodie Williams, Desiree Henry) 42.74. Native records HJ David Smith 2.22. PV Jax Thoirs SCO 5.35. w400H Eilidh Child SCO 54.39. 

At Hampden Park, Glasgow Grand Prix, 12 July: All-comers records 400 Issac Makwala BOT 44.71. 1500 Silas Kiplagat KEN 3:32.84. 4x100 Great Britain & NI (Richard Kilty, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, James Ellington, Daniel Talbot) 38.39. w100 Dafne Schippers NED 11.03/+0.9, then  Michelle Lee-Ahye USA 11.01/+0.3. w200 Dafne Schippers NED 22.34/+0.2. w800 Ajee Wilson USA 1:59.68. w3000S Hiwot Ayalew ETH 9:10.64. w100H Queen Harrison USA 12.58/+0.2. wPV 1 Fabiana Murer BRA, Katerina Stefanidi GRE & Yarisley Silva CUB 4.65. Native records 1500 Chris O'Hare SCO 3:35.06. w800 Lynsey Sharp SCO 2:00.08. w3000S Eilish McColgan SCO 9:44.69. 

At Grangemouth, Scottish Men's League, 13 July: Native record HJ Ray Bobrownicki 2.24 & 2.28.

At Hampden Park, Glasgow, Commonwealth Games, 27 July to 2 August: All-comers records

400 Kirani James GRN 44.24. 10000 Moses Kipsiro UGA 27:56.11. 3000SC Jonathan Ndiku KEN 8:10.44. HJ Derek Drouin CAN 2.31. 4x100 Trinidad & Tobago 38.33 & Jamaica 37.58. 4x400 England 3:00.46. w100 Blessing Okagbare NGR 10.93 & 10.85. w200 Blessing Okagbare NGR 22.25. w400H Kaliese Spencer JAM 54.10. wTJ Kimberley Williams JAM 14.11 & 14.21. wHT Sultana Frizell CAN 71.97. wJT Kim Mickle AUS 65.96. wHep Brianne Theisen-Eaton CAN 6597. w4x100 Jamaica 42.44 & 41.83. w4x400 Jamaica 3:23.82. National records 4x400 Scotland 3:03.94. Native records PV Jax Thoirs 5.35 & 5.45. DT Angus McInroy 57.28. 4x400 Scotland 3:03.94. w5000 Laura Whittle 15:33.72. wMar Susan Partridge 2:32:18. w3000SC Eilish McColgan 9:44.65. w4x400 Scotland 3:33.91.

At Zurich, Switzerland, European Championships, 16 August: National record w800 Lynsey Sharp 1:58.80. 

At Bedford, England Athletics Under-17 Championships, 30 July: U17 1500 Josh Kerr 3:52.46.

5 September 2014. Lynsey Sharp and Eilidh Child became the first Scots to finish in the top 3 in the IAAF Diamond League after the final Grand Prix meeting at Brussels on Friday evening. Lynsey Sharp bettered 800m DL winner Eunice Sum for the second time, but both had to give way to USA's Brenda Martinez who won in 1:58.84 with Sharp and Sum both timed at 1:58.94. Sharp picked up 4 points from the double-point finale to go with the 4 points from her win at Stockholm to clinch 3rd place in the standings behind Sum and Martinez.

Eilidh Child, adapting to a new stride pattern, came 3rd in 54.76 in the Brussels meeting, bringing her total to 7 points, following 4 third places and 1 second, to take 2nd in the DL standings behind runaway winner and Commonwealth champion, Kaliese Spencer, who won 6 of the 7 Diamond League races.

At the UK Schools Games at Manchester, Scotland's England Athletics Under-17 champions, Josh Kerr and George Evans, confirmed their No. 1 standings with victories in the 1500 and Shot respectively. Kerr won the 1500 in 3:58.70 and Evans was nearly a metre clear in taking the shot with 16.79 metres. Carys McAulay, representing North West Schools, won the Girls' 800 metres, as the Scottish Schools finished 6th of the 7 competing regions.

18 August 2014. After the thrills and excitement of the Commonwealth Games at a packed Hampden Park, the Scottish Championships at the Ayrshire Athletics Arena, Kilmarnock at the weekend were a shock to the system. Wet, windy and cold, with depleted fields that made every planned semi-final unnecessary, this was reality athletics at its worst. The elements certainly played havoc with the track performances, but the paucity of the fields was notable in many events. The men's 100 & 400, for instance, featured only two of our top 20 ranked athletes. Only two men's sprint hurdlers competed (one from France) and there was no rival for Commonwealth discus finalist Gus McInroy and just one Scottish male shot putter, where the bronze medal was won with less than 10 metres.

If there was a glaring lack of Commonwealth Games athletes on the track, the same could not be said in the field, where our hammer throwers especially had a 100% turn-out and produced quality competitions. Mark Dry produced the one championship best performance of the day, his season's best 74.63 being the top mark in Britain this year, giving him his 5th Scottish title, equalling his rival Andy Frost's achievement. Susan McKelvie may not have the leading women's mark this year but she has clearly proven herself the most competitive athlete, winning her 7th consecutive hammer title and a record 8th title overall, throwing the hammer out to a season's best of 64.21. There were wins, too, for fellow CG throwers Angus McInroy, his 6th title, with only guest thrower Greg Millar for company; Kirsty Yates, a 3rd title in the Shot; and Kirsty Law, her 7th discus title equalling the event record of Meg Ritchie. Javelin thrower Greg Millar is on a roll as well, his winning throw of 62.33 giving him his 3rd consecutive title.

In the jumps, particularly affected by the high winds with readings of +9.6 on the Sunday (the wind gauge was broken on the Saturday), Inverness's Rachael MacKenzie took her first high jump title in the absence of the injured Jayne Nisbet and Emma Nuttall. In the extreme Saturday conditions, she cleared 1.75 to gain success after 4 silver medals and 1 bronze. Sarah Warnock again got the better of Jade Nimmo in the long jump to retain her title, and Zara Asante was a clear winner in the triple jump for a 3rd title. Caroline Adams retained her pole vault title and Richard Hurren won his 7th men's title, just one behind the event record of 8, set by Pat Ogilvie (1929-36) and David Stevenson (1962-70). Teenager Robert Ferguson was a new name on the title list for the high jump, as were David J. Martin and Tony Daffurn in the long and triple jumps.

Kathryn Christie, still 19, repeated her 2012 sprint double to be the only double-winner of the day, and there was a fine 800 victory for Emily Dudgeon in a very respectable 2:04.29. Perhaps the best track event of the championships was the women's 400 metres hurdles where, despite the high winds and cold weather, the quality of the times was the best in nearly 20 years. It provided the youngest winner of the day in 17-year-old Katie Purves who edged Trafford's Nisha Desai 60.21 to 60.22. Gemma Nicol, running her first hurdles race since she ran 63.80 in 2004, came home 4th in 61.38, suggesting that she can certainly better 60 seconds with more hurdling practice and better conditions. The effect of the wind could be seen in the women's sprint hurdles, where a wind of -6.2 compared with the +6.3 at Scotstoun last year. Hazel Ross took control to win in her 2nd titles but other athletes' hurdling was clearly affected by the conditions.

The men's track events were disappointing with 4 events being won in the slowest times ever. One can only imagine what French-based Scot Benoit Lardy made of it. Having travelled over for the championships,he faced only one opponent, Aberdeen's Ryan Hewitson, who was disqualified for pushing over a hurdle. This event, in particular, has collapsed in depth and quality since the departure of Allan Scott and Chris Baillie and one can only hope Benoit continues to come to the Scottish and gets better competition in future. Sean Fontana (5000) and Ryan McKinlay (3000S) retained their titles and David Martin took his 5th consecutive 400 hurdles title to equal the event record held by Robert Hay (1959-63) and Stan Devine (1980-84).

17 August 2014. Chris O'Hare won a bronze medal in the 1500 metres and Eilidh Child led off the British team to a bronze medal on the final day of the European Championships at Zurich. That gave Scottish athletes a total of 4 medals from these championships, equalling their previous best of 4, achieved at the 1986 championships at Stuttgart where Brian Whittle (4x400) won gold, Tom McKean (800) silver and Yvonne Murray (3000) and Elliot Bunney (4x100) took bronze.

O'Hare set off at the back of the field in a slow-run 1500 metres, where David Bustos of Spain led the field through two laps of 63.47 and 66.25. The field bunched with Ireland's Ciaran O'Lionaird the first casualty, badly spiked. Chris moved up on the outside and moved to the front at 1000m and upped the pace. France's controversial Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad burst to the front, taking the lead at 1100m and striding clear as Holusa (Czech Republic) fell and brought down Britain's Charlie Grice. Mekhissi's stunning burst of pace took him well clear and he was a comfortable winner. O'Hare, caught by Mekhissi's electric pace, was only 6th going into the finishing straight but showed tremendous fight to take 3rd at the tape in 3:46.18. Mekhissi was disappointingly booed for celebrating well before the end - but if you're that good, why not flaunt it!

Eiidh Child led off the British women's quartet in the 4x400 metres relay with a fine 51.3 leg, the fastest of the first leg runners and Kelly Massey took it on with a 50.9 run to keep Britain in the lead. Shana Cox (51.26) was just overtaken by Russia at the bell, but Margaret Adeoye fought well on the final stage, her 50.74 taking the team within 0.02 of Ukraine. However, no one expected the stunning last leg from France's Floria Guei. Having only run 52.82 and failed to make the individual 400 final, she produced an amazing 49.71 to take France from 4th to 1st on the line.

16 August 2014. Eilidh Child fulfilled her favourite status and emerged from Zurich as the new European 400 metres hurdles champion. A master of her craft, her hurdling technique remained smooth throughout the 3 rounds. In a hotly contested final in which 0.22 seconds separated the first 4 places, Eilidh remained controlled to win in 54.48 seconds, ahead of the fast finishing Ukranian Anna Titimets (a PB of 54.56) and Irina Davydova (Russia)(54.60). 

Lynsey Sharp went out strongly at the start of the 800 metres, heading the field at the bell in 58.26 seconds.With only Maryna Arzamasova (Belarus) for company, Lynsey continued to force the pace and went through 600 in 1:27.51 (a Scottish best for the distance). The two athletes were well ahead of the field but Arzamasova proved the stronger winning the title in a European leading 1:58.15, with Lynsey setting a new personal best and Scottish record of 1:58.80 for a fine silver medal. 

It is not the first time that Scottish athletes have won European Championship medals on the same day. In 1990,at Split in Yugoslavia, Tom McKean won the 800 and Yvonne Murray won the 3000 on the same day, while 8 years later at Budapest, Dougie Walker and Allison Curbishley both won relay medals on the same day.

9 August 2014. George Evans recorded a winning throws double at the Celtic Games at Dublin but Scotland were beaten into 3rd place as Ireland dominated the competition winning all the titles and winning the overall competition with 184 points. Wales were 2nd with 150 points but Scotland trailed in 3rd with 136 points. Evans shot and discus double included a 53.85 discus pb which puts him 2nd all-time on the under-17 lists behind Nick Percy. There were sprint victories for Alisha Rees (U16 100) and Cameron Tindle (U18 200) and Kelsey Stewart took the U18 400. The Under 18 Girls took distance victories in the 1500 and 3000 through Caelidh Ross and Gillian Black (pictured) respectively. Dionne Milne (U18 DT) joined Evans as a throws winner and there were jumps victories for Amy Gullen (U18 HJ), Anna Gordon (U18 PV) and Ross McLachlan (U18 LJ). Stewart earned a 2nd victory as part of the Scottish U18 women's 4x400 team, but overall this was the poorest result Scotland has had in these Celtic Games for many years.

7 August 2014. When Lynsey Sharp and Jenny Meadows qualified for the final of the women's 800 metres at the Commonwealth Games as fastest losers, the athlete to miss out on the final was Emily Dudgeon of Scotland. On our features page, Emily tells SATS about her Commonwealth Games experience.

2 August 2014. It's all over. The Commonwealth Games ended with Usain Bolt after some more fine performances by Scottish athletes. Chris O'Hare produced the best performance by a Scot in the showpiece 1500 metres final since Graham Williamson placed 4th in 1982. In a tightly bunched field, O'Hare made a supreme effort on the last lap, moving up the field on the back straight and fighting hard round the top bend. The leaders proved too fast in the home straight, the Kenyan Magut winning in 3:39.31, with Chris holding on to 6th place in 3:40.63 and finishing the top Briton in the race.

It was 6th place, too, for Laura Whittle in the women's 5000. After a slow start, running at the back of the field of 17 athletes, she seemed to grow in confidence as the race progressed. She started to pick off backmarkers and then as athletes wilted in front of her, she finished stronger than most of them. With a couple of laps to go, she caught up with Beth Potter, who had started the race more aggressively, and by the tape had passed Potter and two athletes stronger on paper - Canada's O'Connell and Emelia Gorecka of England - to finish 6th in a new Scottish native record of 15:33.72. Potter was just outside her best, 9th in 15:44.38, but Stephanie Twell was a shadow of the athlete who won the bronze medal in Delhi in 2010. She trailed in 14th in 16:30.66 in her first 5000 of the year, looking short of the fitness levels necessary to compete at this level.

Scotland's men's 4x400 produced another fine run, getting within 0.13 seconds of their new national record. Kris Robertson produced a solid first leg, handing over this time to Grant Plenderleith who took Scotland into 6th place. Jamie Bowie put in a storming run to bring the team up to 5th place and Greg Louden kept Scotland solidly in 5th place, bringing the team home 5th in 3:04.07. That's an average of 46 seconds per athlete for the team.

The heavy rain played havoc with the women's pole vault. In short, it was a massacre. A new Commonwealth Games record was set as 60% of the field was wiped out without clearing a height. If this event had been scheduled for any other night, it would probably have been postponed and held on a later day. As it was, it had to go ahead and Henrietta Paxton was one of the unfortunates who could not get over the opening height of 3.80 metres. As with others, Paxton was clearly over the bar but saw the pole slide back to knock the bar off. It was doubly unfortunate for Henrietta who now has the ignominious record of having competed in two Commonwealth Games without clearing a height.

30 July 2014. Day 4 of the Commonwealth Games showed how tough a competition these Games can be with high standards in the qualifying in the field and quality finals. Angus McInroy produced the first Scottish native record of the Games, 57.28 in the 3rd round of the discus qualifying, for 11th position in the final, and Eilish McColgan improved her own native record by 0.04 seconds in the Steeplechase to claim 6th place.

Kirsty Yates, only recently turned 21, and competing alongside the great Valerie Adams - both of them sharing the honour of being former Scottish under-15 champions - was certainly not overawed by the occasion as she fired her first round shot putt to a new personal best of 16.42 and temporarily led the leaderboard. The throw added 33cm to her PB, and was the 3rd best throw by a Scot in Scotland, behind Meg Ritchie's 16.80 and 16.66. Although she couldn't improve on her opening round throw, she should be proud of her 8th position in an excellent competition. Alison Rodger was 10th with her one legitimate throw of 14.76.

There was a gutsy performance by Guy Learmonth, roared on by the home crowd, who qualified automatically in 3rd place (1:47.78) in heat 1 of the 800 metres semi finals, behind Kenyans David Rudisha and Ferguson Rotich. Guy turned the tables on Ricardo Cunningham who had edged him in the heat and left the Australian Jeff Riseley, a 1:44.48 man, trailing in 5th.

The women's high jump qualifying was stronger than could have been anticipated as 15 athletes were still in the competition as the bar was raised to 1.85 metres. Jayne Nisbet was in great form as she followed faultless attempts at 1.71, 1.76 and 1.81, with another first-time clearance at 1.85. The height proved too much for Emma Nuttall though. Looking good over 1.71 and 1.76, she cleared 1.81 at the 2nd attempt, but had 3 close fails at 1.85. Scotland's third entrant Rachael MacKenzie, cleared 1.66, 1.71 and 1.76, but went out at 1.81, a height equal to her personal best.

While the women's competition was fierce, the men had to complete their final in cold and windy conditions, and 2.25 was enough to eliminate 8 athletes, including Ray Bobrownicki, equal 9th with 2.21 metres.

There were excellent runs in the 800 metres heats from Lynsey Sharp and Emily Dudgeon to qualify for the semi finals. Lynsey took 2nd in heat 1 in 2:03.04, and in a faster heat 3, Emily advanced in 3rd in 2:02.35.

Eilish McColgan ran her season's best of 9:44.65 for 6th place in the Steeplechase where there was a Kenyan 1-2-3 followed by two Australians. Lennie Waite placed 10th in 9:51.93. 

In the men's discus qualifying, Nick Percy's 56.71 saw him place 5th in Group A qualifying (ahead of 2 athletes superior on paper), but the quality of the B Group, saw him place 13th overall, missing the final by just 55cm. In the women's long jump qualifying, 25 athletes started and 6.29 was the mark eventually needed to reach the final 12, but that proved too much for Jade Nimmo (6.23 in 14th) and Sarah Warnock (6.22 in 15th).

These Games are proving compelling viewing but one thing the organisers have got wrong is the scheduling of medal ceremonies after the final event. It was disapponting to see Valerie Adams, javelin winner Kim Mickle (her 65.96 being a Games record and Scottish all-comers' record) and Canadian Derek Drouin (another all-comers' record of 2.31 in the high jump) being presented their medals after 10pm in a half-empty stadium. They deserved better.

22 July 2014. Kimberley Reed advanced to the final of the women's hammer throw at the World Junior Championships at Eugene with a 58.57 final round throw that put her through as the 10th qualifier. With 9 throwers reaching the automatic qualifying of 60 metres, there were three further spaces up for grabs and Kimberley took the first of them with her final qualifying throw. The final is this evening (1.30am our time). Shaun Wyllie missed out, however, in the 1500 metres, finishing 6th in the final heat in 3:49.95, the race having been won in 3:48.36. Heats 2 and 3 were much slower than the first heat, won in 3:41.35, where the first 8 were all faster than the next two heat winners.

22 July 2014. Five Scottish athletes have been named in a 56-strong British team for the IPC European Championships at Swansea on 18-23 August. Libby Clegg and Samantha Kinghorn (pictured) will follow on from their Commonwealth Games appearances and they are joined in the side by Jo Butterfield in the F51 club throw and discus, Maria Lyle in the T35 100 and 200 metres, and Stef Reid in the F44 100 metres and long jump, the event in which she set her world record 5.47 metres at the recent Glasgow Grand Prix at Hampden. 

There were fine wins for Josh Kerr (1500) and George Evans (Shot) at the Schools International at Cardiff on Saturday with several Scots moving into the under-17 all-time list. Anglo Carys McAulay, representing English Schools, was the only female winner, decisively taking the 800 metres. All 3 winners recorded personal bests and now feature in the all-time top 10s, as do Michael Olsen (200), Jill Cherry (300) and Katie Turnbull (1500S). However, despite these top performers, the Scottish Schools lack of depth was highlighted again, with the team finishing in last place for the 4th year in a row.