28 November 2015. scottishathletics has officially ratified the following performances as Scottish records.

Laura Muir, 3:58.66, Scottish National 1500 metres record; 

Lynsey Sharp, 1:57.71, Scottish National 800 metres record; 

Jax Thoirs (pictured), 5.65, Scottish National and Native Indoor Pole Vault record;

Kirsty Costello, 32.22, Scottish Under-13 Javelin record;

Lisa O'Neill, 43.67, Scottish Under-17 Javelin record;

Ben Greenwood, 1:50.42, Scottish Under-17 800 metres record;

Joel McFarlane, 11.12, Scottish Under-15 80 metres hurdles record.

In addition, the record for the under-17 women's hammer with the new 3kg weight was considered. It was noted that Emma Rae had recorded a throw of 56.22 metres but, after investigation, it was agreed to ratify an earlier performance of 59.25 by Myra Perkins as the inaugural record for this weight.

The under-13 record for the girls' 1500 metres was amended. The performance of Sarah Coutts (4:42.3) was rejected as it was set in a mixed race. However, it was noted that the existing record of 4:43.64 by Kathryn Gillespie was also set in a mixed race. It was agreed to ratify the best performance in a true, non-mixed race, and the new record has been set at 4:50.98 by Kathryn Gillespie in 2009.

The record lists on the Records pages have now been updated to reflect thee decisions.

There were some outstanding athletes up for our under-20 SATS Challenge award, among them European Junior Champion Josh Kerr, World and Commonwealth Youth Games medallist George Evans, and all our Youth Games medallists but it was Jack Lawrie who emerged triumphant to take the under-20 award. The consistency of his 400 metres hurdles performances allied with British and Scottish titles and his 4th place at the Euro Juniors saw off Edinburgh AC's Cameron Tindle and Josh Kerr.

Congratulations to all our SATS Challenge winners:

Seniors - Laura Muir

Under-20s - Jack Lawrie

Under-17s - Ben Greenwood

Under-15s - Joel McFarlane

Under-13s - Kirsty Costello

You can find all the rankings here.

28 October 2015. Perth Strathtay's 800 metres runner Ben Greenwood has emerged triumphant in the SATS Under 17 Challenge fighting off a close challenge from Banchory sprinter Alisha Rees to take the honours. Alisha, 3rd last year, added 300 points to her 2014 score but it wasn't enough to overhaul Ben's score of 2908 points, a total that was 228 points higher than the 2014 top mark.

Scores were generally higher than the previous year with 20th position higher than last year's 12th.

You can see the top 20 places at the foot of our SATS Challenge page, below the senior rankings.

24 October 2015. The SATS Challenges continue through the age-groups and our under-15 title goes to Arbroath's multi-talented youngster Joel McFarlane. Scoring across a mix of events - the 80 metres hurdles, long jump and pentathlon - and adding maximum bonus points for winning Scottish and UK titles, McFarlane moved up from 16th position last year to finish clear of Victoria Park's hurdler Jade Henry and Falkirk's 800 metres runner, Olivia Vareille.

You can see the top 20 places on our SATS Challenge page, below the senior rankings.

21 October 2015. There may be no Scottish championship for the event within the age-group and no Scottish record either, but Kilbarchan's hammer thrower Kirsty Costello has gained our recognition as our runaway winner of the SATS Under-13 Challenge.

Kirsty's performances, which would have topped the under-15 performance lists, saw her win our title by 375 points from Pitreavie's 1500 metres runner Sarah Coutts and Giffnock's Reuben Nairne. Last year's winner Owen Ashall finished in fifth position this time round.

You can see the top 20 places on our SATS Challenge page, below the senior rankings.

17 October 2015. The countdown of our senior SATS Challenge has ended and we have a new winner in Laura Muir. Her sub-4 1500 metres combined with 2 other sub-4:01 times, combined with her 5th place at the World Championships and her British title, led her to a convincing win over the 2014 winner Eilidh Child. 800 metres' record-breaker Lynsey Sharp took 3rd with Steph Twell coming in at 4th after failing to register 3 performances in 2014. Mark Dry was the highest placed male athlete in 6th position, with Rhona Auckland, Kirsten McAslan and Andrew Butchart making great strides forward in the top 20. 

The Challenge will continue in a few days time when we will have the age-group rankings.

13 October 2015. We kick off our 2015 SATS Challenge rankings with positions 81 to 100 today, led off by Edinburgh AC's Avril Jackson at no. 100. Avril is one of an astonishing 33 new entrants to our top 100 this year, a remarkable turn around from Commonwealth Games year. There's no Eilish McColgan (last year's number 4), Stephen Lisgo (14), Andrew Lemoncello (29), James Campbell (34), Jayne Nisbet (36), Alison Rodger (60), Emma Nuttall (69), Jade Nimmo (70), Gemma Nicol (71), Diane Ramsay (75), all members of last year's Commonwealth Games team.

The standard has dropped slightly as well. Last year, 2665 points was required to get into the top 100, this year it has fallen to 2557 points. 13 of the 33 new entries feature in places 81 to 100 and you can see the countdown to the top positions by selecting SATS Challenge from the menu on our Rankings page or by clicking here.,

9 September 2015. The athletics at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa has finished and the six athletes who represented Scotland produced outstanding performances, with every athlete returning with a medal. 

Alisha Rees won silver in the 200 metres to follow up on her 100 metres bronze medal. Ben Greenwood came home 3rd in the 800 metres in a new Scottish under-17 record behind two astonishing Kenyans, (someone check their birth certificates!). George Evans had started the medal haul off with silver behind the World Youth champion and Carys McAulay took silver in a competitive 800. Rachel Alexander took bronze in the long jump and Cameron Tindle, who was 4th in the 200, won bronze in the 100 with the fastest run by any Scot this year. 

6 September 2015. Lynsey Sharp finished her season on a high after the disappointment in Beijing. Having finished a strong 2nd in Zurich in midweek, she won the Grand Prix in Berlin in a new Scottish 800 metres record of 1:57.71.

That's the fastest by a Brit since Kelly Holmes in 2004 and puts her 3rd on the British all-time list, behind Holmes (1:56.21) and Kirsty Wade (1:57.42).

Amazingly, that means that technically Lynsey is not the fastest Scottish-born athlete over 800 metres as Kirsty Wade, then McDermott, was born in Girvan before moving to Wales when she was 3 years old and subsequently competing as a Welsh athlete.

You can see a video of the race on our facebook page.

31 August 2015. The World Championships in Beijing ended on the final day with two bronze medals for Scottish athletes as Eilidh Child ran an excellent 50.61 third leg to steer Great Britain to 3rd place in the 4 x 400 metres relay and Kirsten McAslan was rewarded with a bronze by virtue of her 51.02 relay leg in the heats which helped Great Britain qualify.

Laura Muir, after the disappointments of her 2014 championships, rebounded in more confident fashion with her best championship to date. A strong heat and then an excellent 5th place in the final of the 1500 metres, behind the winner, World record holder Genzebe Dibaba. Championship races are run differently to the paced races of the Diamond League and the electrifying short sprint bursts by the likes of Dibaba and Hassan are not, as yet, a feature that Muir has in her locker.  

Eilidh Child comfortably came through the rounds of the 400 metres hurdles and ran consistently throughout, her times in heat, semi and final all being within 0.06 seconds of each other. She was 7th fastest of the athletes going into the final and improved on that ranking with her 6th position in the final, defeating her Commonwealth conqueror from 2014, Kaliese Spencer.

Lynsey Sharp was unable to make the final in the 800 metres when she found there was nothing left in the tank in the sprint to the line in the semi-final. Having led through 400 metres in 57.32 seconds, easily the fastest of the 3 semi-finals, her aggressive running was maybe her undoing. The event was massively stronger this year than in Moscow in 2013. 2 years ago, 5 athletes bettered 2 minutes in the semi-finals, this year 17 athletes achieved this feat  with Buchel, at 1:58.63, not even making the cut.

Mark Dry threw the hammer 73.87 metres in the final round of the qualifying stages, placing him 15th of the 30 athletes attempting to reach the final. Exasperatingly, he was just 65cm away from reaching the final, with the 12th spot in the qualifying being reached in 74.51 metres. In the final itself that throw of 73.87 would have placed him 10th.

Chris O'Hare was disappointed with himself at failing to make the final of the 1500 metres where, similar to Sharp in the 800, he put himself in position to qualify, but could not find the kick in the final sprint. Normally a strong finisher, he was placed 3rd at 1200 metres, but his final 300m of 39.48 was bettered by 8 athletes in the race as he dropped to 7th in his semi-final. 

The final of the 7 Scots, Stephanie Twell, was glad to be back on a major stage after years of injury and she ran a steady 5000m heat to comfortably qualify for the final as a fastest loser. In the final itself, she was never going to be in medal contention and ran in 12th place throughout. Around 5 seconds behind the leaders at 1000m and 2000m, the increase in pace in the 3rd kilometre saw the winner Ayana going through that kilometre in 2:48.71 and the next in 2:43.62; Twell, in comparison, upped her pace in the 3rd kilometre to 2:59.72 before falling back to 3:05.99 for the 4th and 3:08.55 in the final kilometre for 15:26.24, nearly a minute behind the winning time.

Shocked today to hear of the death of Brian Winning at the tragically young age of 48. 

An excellent club athlete, he was passionate about the development of hurdling and so supportive of the athletes he coached.

Our condolences to his family and friends.

Scottish athletics has lost one of its stars of the 1970s after the sudden death of Stewart McCallum at the weekend. 

Stewart, latterly a board member of the governing body represented Scotland in the decathlon at the 1974 Commonwealth Games. He won Scottish championship titles on 6 occasions between 1971 and 1978, 3 times at 110 metres hurdles, once at pole vault, and twice at decathlon.

He topped the Scottish rankings in five different events during his career, the three above events, the long jump and the 400 metres hurdles.

He set Scottish records at the decathlon (twice) but after retiring from the event following the Commonwealth Games, where his decathlon ended with a no height in the pole vault, he turned to the hurdles and found great success in the 400 metres hurdles.

In that event, he set 3 Scottish records, lowering the record to 50.7, and represented Great Britain 4 times, after he had made 5 GB international appearances in the decathlon.

His son, Blair, gained a silver medal at the 2012 Scottish championships.

Stewart had joined the board of scottishathletics to give something back to the sport he loved. Our best wishes go to his family at this time.

We are pleased to add part 2 of our history of Scotland international matches, covering the period from 1946 to 1968. This covers 28 matches and 5 British Empire & Commonwealth Games, with 315 Scotland internationalists recorded.

There's the start of international matches against foreign opposition, the development of women's internationals, and you can trace the careers of such athletes as Crawford Fairbrother, David Stevenson and Ming Campbell (pictured).

You can read the story here and see the results here.

The next phase will cover the period 1969 to 1985. I have access to SATS and British yearbooks, and Athletics Weekly from that period, but if anyone has results, programmes, photographs, anecdotes or mementos that they are willing to share, I would be grateful for your assistance.

15-16 August 2015. Kirsty Law won her 8th Scottish Championship discus title at Aberdeen, bettering the event record of 7 which she shared with Meg Ritchie. Ahead, too, of the 6 won by Rosemary Payne and Alison Grey. It is a great achievement, 

The achievement was made the more noticeable by the absence of a large number of Scotland's leading athletes who did not make the trip to Aberdeen (but equally the case last year at Kilmarnock). This resulted in the failure to recognise the hammer as a champonship event as there were only 2 entries, a fate which could have been repeated with the 110 metres hurdles and women's high jump where they may have had sufficient entries, but attracted only 2 competitors on the day.

Even in events that produced good contests, they could have been so much stronger. The men's 1500 had one of the top 10 in the rankings, as did the 400m, pole vault, and women's 5000m. One wonders how much a championship medal means these days. Is it time that the top 10 in the rankings were given free entry and personal invitations?

Class did shine through though. Andrew Butchart won his first title, the 5000, then went on to gain silver in the 1500. Jack Lawrie, strangely running in Woodford Green colours and not Pitreavie, had a significant win over title-holder David Martin in the 400m hurdles, and Alisha Rees became the youngest winner of the 200 since Helen Golden. 

Madeleine Murray and Morag MacLarty won the women's distance events by a distance, MacLarty making her debut over 5000 on the track. Greg Louden, Grant Plenderleith and Jake Wightman were classy winners on the track, as were Zoey Clark and Hazel Ross in the women's events.

On the field, Rachael Mackenzie repeated her 2014 title win in a close high jump, Sarah Warnock mastered the wind to retain her long jump title and Kirsty Yates retained the shot from Mhairi Porterfield, who set a PB 14 years on from her previous best as Mhairi Walters. A PB too, for David J Martin to win the long jump, and a first hammer title for Rachel Hunter were among the highlights.

31 July 2015. Britain's selection policy for major championships has been subject to much criticism in recent years, particularly in that it leaves many deserving and talented athletes at home.

This week, steeplechaser Lennie Waite was one such athlete to suffer. She has written about on her website www.lenniewaite.com and, with her kind permission, we have reproduced the article on our Features page and made it the first topic of conversation on the new forum. 

18 July 2015. In a good day for Scots around the globe, Josh Kerr of Edinburgh AC took pride of place as he took victory in the European Junior Championships at Eskilstuna in Sweden. Taking the pack through 400 metres in 63.36, team-mate Robbie Fitzgibbon took over and led through 800 (2:08.04) and 1200 (3:06.69). Fitzgibbon dropped to 6th in the final lap burn-up but Kerr triumphed in 3:49.62 heading France's Mischler and Aliksiychuk of the Ukraine in the medal positions.

Kerr was delighted "It feels so good, so good right now! It was definitely a tough race but I am very pleased. My goal was to get the gold and I have looked forward to this moment for such a long time. I had my right head on today".

In Colombia, George Evans of Inverness became only the 2nd Scot to win a medal at the IAAF World Youth Championships when he launched his only legal throw of the discus competition to 60.22 metres to win the bronze medal, just 11cm behind the silver medallist. Cameron Tindle and Carys McAulay are both through to today's finals.

It was a crucial day too for our World Championships hopefuls as Mark Dry, Chris O'Hare and Steph Twell all gained the necessary 2nd qualifier. Dry bettered 76 metres for the second time with a 76.56 throw at Loughborough's LEAP meeting, whiele at the KBC Nacht meeting in Belgium, Chris O'Hare led home the 1500 metres men in a new personal best of 3:34.83. At the same meeting, Steph Twell sealed her return to the major international stage with her 15:14.39 run for the 4th place in the 5000 metres. 

18 July 2015. Laura Muir last night took part in one of the great athletics races of all time and became the first Scottish woman athlete to break 4 minutes as Genzebe Dibaba broke the 1500m world record with a time of 3:50.07.

As the IAAF report, Qu Yunxia's mark of 3:50.46, set at the 1993 National Games, was considered to be one of the toughest world records on the books. But in a perfectly judged race, world indoor 800m champion Chanelle Price paced Dibaba through 400m in 1:00.31 and 800m in 2:04.52 before leaving the Ethiopian to finish.

Dibaba still had European champion Sifan Hassan for company as she passed the bell in 2:50.3, but the two-time world indoor champion kicked hard. With 100m left to run, it became clear that Dibaba was, at the very least, going to get close to the world record. But she charged for the line, crossing it in 3:50.07 to become the fastest 1500m runner in history.

In a race of great depth, six women ran faster than four minutes. Hassan clocked a national record of 3:56.05 in second, while Shannon Rowbury broke the North American record with 3:56.29 in third. 2011 world champion Jenny Simpson recorded her second-fastest time ever with 3:57.30 in fourth.

From the Scottish viewpoint, the important position was 5th as Muir came home in 3:58.66, bettering her own Scottish record of 4:00.07, and ranking 2nd all-time in the UK behind Kelly Holmes' Olympic gold medal run in Athens 11 years ago of 3:57.90. Lisa Dobriskey (3:59.50), Hayley Tullett (3:59.95) and Zola Budd (3:59.96) are the only other UK athletes to have bettered 4 minutes.

Laura is having a sensational season after her disappointments in 2014 having also set personal bests at 800 (2:00.42) and 3000 (8:38.47).

12 July 2015. Zoey Clark and Kirsten McAslan topped Scottish athletes' great performances at the European Under-23 Championships at Tallinn with gold in the women's 4x400 metres. Led off by Seren Bundy-Davies, Aberdeen's Clark took over on leg 2 and her 52.7 run kept GB in the lead as they hit 800m in 1:44.90, 0.50 ahead of Germany. Victoria Ohuruogu's 3rd leg of 53.18 edged GB further ahead, 1 second ahead of Germany, as Kirsten McAslan took over on the last leg. Challenged by Poland's individual bronze medallist Patrycja Wyciszkiewicz and the silver medallist Renzhina of Russia, Kirsten ran a well-judged 51.99 leg to take gold in 3:30.24, 0.54 ahead of Poland.

The gold medal climaxed an excellent week for the Scots in the GB team with 5 athletes finishing in the top 7 in their events. Rhona Auckland had started things off with a silver medal in the women's 10000 on day 2. In a battle with Netherland's Jip Vastenburg, she trailed the Dutch athlete for the first 7000 metres, before leading through 8000 in 26:01.50 and 9000 in 29:13.18 before giving best to Vastenburg 32:18.69 to 32:22.79 with the bronze medallist over 20 seconds behind. It was a PB for Auckland who is now 4th fastest Scot of all-time at the event. Rhona was " very delighted. I gave my best. Happy to improve my personal best. Season has been better than excpected."

A bronze medal came through the efforts of Giffnock North's Neil Gourley, 3rd in the 1500m in 3:45.04 in a close-fought race where just 2 seconds separated the first nine athletes. Gourley, just 20, fought off older athletes to split Italians in 2nd and 4th, with fellow Scot Cameron Boyek 0.70 behind Neil in 7th place.

With Kirsten McAslan setting a PB of 52.13 to reach the 400 final where she finished 5th in 52.33. Rachel Hunter missed out on the final though where her 61.16 hammer found her 6 places off qualifying (63.70) in 18th place.

Allison Curbishley remains the only Scottish individual gold medal winner at these championships, with Clark and McAslan now joining Curbishley and Susan Burnside as relay gold-medal winners.

5 July 2015. In a remarkable display of distance running, Scotland's women athletes won every event from 800 metres upwards at the British Championships at Sheffield at the weekend. Lynsey Sharp won the 800, Laura Muir ran away with the 1500, Steph Twell led Laura Whittle to a comfortable 1-2 in the 5000, and Lennie Waite took the 3000 Steeplechase title. Add Rhona Auckland's earlier 10000 British title and the Scots completed a remarkable clean sweep of the distance titles. With Eilidh Child (pictured, Bobby Gavin) winning the 400 hurdles, Scotland's women took a record 6 championship titles. 

Sharp's title was her 3rd senior 800 victory and Lennie Waite's steeplechase victory meant that Scottish athletes have won the event for 5 years in a row - Eilish McColgan, absent through injury, having won the previous 3 titles and Waite herself having won the event in 2011.

There were also 2 bronze medals in the field for our female throwers through Kirsty Law and Susan McKelvie giving them a total of 5 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals from the weekend.

The Scottish men were put in the shade with no individual winners, but Mark Dry, Chris O'Hare and David Smith won silver medals, Dry's 4th medal success in the hammer. Chris Bennett took bronze in the hammer and was joined by Jax Thoirs in the pole vault, to give Scotland a weekend's medal haul of 5 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze medals. Adding Auckland's gold in May, the tally exactly equals Scotland's medal success in 2013.

2 July 2015. Jax Thoirs, returned from a successful season at the University of Washington, cleared 5.65 metres at the Grangemouth open meeting last night to better his native and national indoor records of 5.61, set at the same Grangemouth meeting last year.

Jax also has an outdoor performance of 5.65 which is awaiting a record application form being submitted for that performance to be ratified.

The scottishathletics Track & Field Commission has officially ratified 3 performances as new Scottish records at their June meeting.

Mark Dry (left, photo: Bobby Gavin) has removed the long-standing hammer record of 75.40, held by Chris Black since 1983, with his superb throw of 76.93 at the Loughborough international on 17 May.

Also at Loughborough, Ben Greenwood set a new record for the under-17 800 metres, his 1:50.44 bettering Mark Mitchell's 1:50.90 which was set in 2004. 

The 3rd new record holder is Pitreavie's Anna Gordon, her vault of 3.90 metres at the Pitreavie club championships on 12 April equalling the existing under-20 indoor record held by Kim Skinner.

A number of performances are awaiting ratification as no completed application forms have been received to date by the records committee. These inclue Jax Thoirs' vault of 5.65 at the Pac-12 Championships on 16 May, together with 3 performances from the Scottish Indoor League: Ben Greenwood's 1:54.15 on 14 December (since betered), and Reuben Nairne's under-13 hurdles performances of 9.62 (4 January) and 9.42 (8 February).

Guidance on procedures for records are detailed in the records section of this website.

4 June 2015. Last night, the BBC presented an investigative report Catch Me if You Can by Mark Daly that insinuated that Scotland's Olympic Gold medallist from 1980, Allan Wells, earned his success by taking drugs.

The basis for this insinuation was the accusation by Wells' relay team-mate Drew McMaster and hearsay evidence from other individuals. On the face of things the weight of the allegations was quite damning and will certainly have damaged the reputation of one of Scotland's star athletes. 

I don't know whether Allan Wells took drugs or not. But how does someone defend himself against allegations such as those in the programme. 35 years on from his Olympic gold, all that Allan Wells can do is state, as he has done repeatedly, that he never took drugs.

The BBC, however, should have greater standards than those displayed by Mark Daly's programme. Allegations were masqueraded as fact. Relevant information was omitted from the programme - either deliberately or through lack of research. Was it not relevant to make clear the hatred that McMaster had for Wells (and vice versa). So much so that they had to be separated in relay teams because they refused to pass the baton to each other.

A transcript of supposed 'secret interviews' that McMaster had with the late Scotland team doctor, Dr Ledingham, were presented. These transcripts were presumably prepared by McMaster - there was no suggestion that the BBC had heard the original interviews. This was not proof.

Allan Wells' reputation has been tarnished by this programme. In that respect, the programme probably achieved what Drew McMaster wanted. Truth? I would want some facts.

18 May 2015. There is a big season of international competition ahead with the World Championships, European Under 23 Championships, World Youth Championships and Commonwealth Youth Games all on the horizon. Several Scots put themselves in the frame for selection at the weekend and here are the athletes who have the standards so far this year:

World Championships

Steph Twell (5000), Alan Smith (HJ), Jax Thoirs (PV) and Mark Dry (HT).

European Under 23 Championships

Kirsten McAslan (400), Laura Muir (1500), Rhona Auckland (5000 & 10000), Rachel Hunter (HT).

World Youth Championships

Alisha Rees (200), Carys McAulay (800), Rachel Alexander (LJ), Cameron Tindle (200), Ben Greenwood (800), and George Evans (DT).

Commonwealth Youth Games

Alisha Rees (200), Carys McAulay (800), Sarah Pearson 100H & 400H), Rachel Alexander (LJ), Cameron Tindle (200), Ben Greenwood (800), and George Evans (DT).

17 May 2015. Jax Thoirs has bettered his own previous best performance of 5.60 and the Scottish pole vault record of 5.50 with a 5.65 victory at the Pac-12 Championships  at Los Angeles. He retained his title in this significant event on the US track & field calendar and is a new Scottish record, subject to ratification. Jax entered the competition at 5.10 metres, and had first-time clearances at 5.10, 5.20, passed at 5.25, then cleared first-time at 5.30 and 5.35. He then had the bar raised to 5.65 (18' 6.5") and again cleared at the first attempt. He had 2 attempts at 5.73.

17 May 2015. One of the oldest Scottish records was beaten today as Mark Dry bettered Chris Black's 1983 record of 75.40 metres when he hurled his 5th round throw out to 76.83 metres at the Loughborough International meeting. Mark gradually built up to this superb effort, starting with 72.83, 72.69 and then 74.29 in the 3rd round. Representing Loughborough, that 3rd round throw moved him into 2nd place ahead of Scotland's Chris Bennett who had set a PB of 73.91 in the previous throw, both behind Nick Miller's 75.39. In the 4th round, Mark improved to 74.87 before unleashing his 5th round record throw to take the lead. And in an excellent competion, Chris Bennett put his final round throw out to another PB of 74.66.

Scotland, hit by a stream of call-offs as well as the requirement to allow Loughborough and GB Juniors to have first choice on selections, put out a young team who excelled on the day to enable Scotland to take 4th place overall. Another Scottish record was beaten in the 800 metres where Ben Greenwood removed Mark Mitchell's 800 metres' under-17 record, just as he had done indoors, with a new record of 1:50.44.

There were many fine performances with sprinters Cameron Tindle and Alisha Rees moving to 3rd U20 all-time and 4th under-17 all-time respectively in the 200 metres.

2 May 2015. Jax Thoirs has bettered the Scottish pole vault record with his 5.53 clearance at the University of Washington v Washington State University Dual Meet at Seattle. His vault bettered his existing record of 5.50 but will only be ratified if the required paperwork is submitted, something that has been a problem in the past. Jax entered the competition at 5.12 metres, clearing on the second attempt, before first-time clearances at 5.32 and 5.53 (18 feet 1.75 inches), finally attempting 5.65.

15 April 2015. Pictured is Anna Gordon on her way to equalling the Scottish indoor under-20 pole vault record of 3.90 metres at the Pitreavie AAC Club Championships.

Pitreavie used the SATS scoring tables to score their club championships and put a lot of effort into the set-up. To read more about this, and see more pictures from the day, we have the story on the features page.

1 April 2015. Scottishathletics' track and field commission has ratified a number of Scottish indoor records as well as updating some older records and granting formal record status to additional events.

The most remarkable record is that of Ben Greenwood (picture by Bobby Gavin) who reduced Mark Mitchell's under-17 indoor record of 1:57.17 for 800 metres to 1:51.62.

The full list of records ratified:

Indoors: National, Native and All-Comers: 4x200 (Club) 1:29.30 Pitreavie AAC.  Native: High Jump 2.25 Allan Smith & David Smith.  Under-20: Women's 800 2:07.00 Mhairi Hendry.  Under-17:  Men's 800 1:51.62 Ben Greenwood.  Women's 200: 24.78, 24.62 & 24.53 Alisha Rees. Women's 800: 2:10.28 Sarah Eunson. Women's Pentathlon: 3611 Caitlin Edgar & 3685 Holly McArthur. Under-15: Boys' Pentathlon 2947 Joel McFarlane. Under-13: Boys 800 2:20.48 Lewis Blair. Boys 60H 9.47 Reuben Nairne. Boys HJ 1.62 Owen Ashall. Boys SP 9.84 Arran Buchanan. 

In addition, the following inaugural records were established for the under-15 300 metres and under-13 1500 metres: 300 40.39 Jack McCleneghen and 41.78 Holly McArthur (2014); 1500 metres 4:44.40 Jack Patton and 5:03.5 Carol Candlish (1978). Formal record status has now been granted to the women's under-17 3000 metres 9:49.38 Siobhan Coleman (2005).

The following outdoor records have been ratified - Under-20 Men Hammer 67.17 & 67.18 Nick Percy (2013). Under-17 Women Javelin (500g) 41.80 Lisa O'Neill, and formal record status has been given to the 3x800 relay marks of Giffnock North 5:47.21 (senior & under-20 men), Kilbarchan 5:58.41 (under-17 men), City of Glasgow AC 6:46.71 (senior women) and Edinburgh AC 7:02.51 (under-20 women).

20 March 2015. Today we are pleased to announce the launch of our new Scotland page on the website. This is the start of a project to record the results of all of Scotland's international matches and all of the athletes who have represented Scotland. Other sports have put great store in maintaining such a record but for some reason athletics seems to have let this pass by. Today, you can now see the full results - or, at least as full as is possible - of Scotland international matches from the very first international match against Ireland in 1895 up until the 1938 international, the last prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The next part of the project will focus on the period 1945 to 1968, which takes us up to the start of the metric era.

Pictured on the left is Richard Wallace, as Daniel Stewart's College Schools Champion of 1931, kindly supplied by Ian McKerrow, the archivist at Stewart's Melville College. Richard Wallace went on to become an Empire Games bronze medallist as part of Scotland's 4 x 440 yards relay team in 1934, but up until now has always been recorded as Robert or Ronald, including on the Commonwealth Games Federation's own website.

We hope you find this new page of interest and if you have any additional information on the matches or the athletes, no matter how small, this will be gratefully received. Similarly, any information over and above that recorded in Athletics Weekly for the period to 1968 will be very helpful.

The Scotland page can be found on the menu at the top.

16 March 2015. Having won the Scottish under-15 pentathlon title at the Emirates on Saturday, Arbroath & District's Joel McFarlane achieved a unique double when he travelled to Sheffield to take the England Athletics Under-15 title on the Sunday with a new Scottish record score of 2,947 points. He improved his performances in 3 events on the Sunday, running 8.83 for the hurdles (9.09 at Glasgow), putting the shot 11.57 metres as against 10.75 in the Scottish, and running the conclusive 800 metres in 2:18.44, almost 3 seconds faster. His other 2 events, the long jump (5.94) and high jump (1.69) were identical on both days. Trailing by over 200 points going into the 800, he ran almost 19 seconds faster than the leader William Adeyeye to claim the title by 22 points. One can question the wisdom of a 14-year-old completing pentathlons on consecutive days, but it has been a remarkable weekend for Joel.

16 March 2015. The weekend's activity saw the all-time indoor lists re-written following the Scottish Combined Events and Relay Championships at the Emirates, with pride of place going to the Scottish records set by Holly McArthur and Pitreavie AAC. Holly McArthur won the under-17 women's pentathlon with 3,685 points, bettering Caitlin Edgar's pending record performance of 3,611 points set at the Schools international in December. The official record of 3,582 was set by Aileen Wilson 15 years ago. The results page shows how many performances broke into the Scottish top ten, with under-13 Reuben Nairne coming within just 2 points of Scott Connal's record. At the relay championships, the Pitreavie AAC quartet of Declan Brennan, Ewan Dyer, Steven Perrie-Clyde and James McLaren (pictured) won the senior 4x200 title in 1:29.30, setting a new Scottish club best for the event. 

In Canada, the Scottish students at Trinity Western University performed admirably at the Canadian championships, with Calum Innes winning hurdles silver in a new PB of 7.89 seconds, and Sarah Inglis gaining the bronze medal in the 3000.

Jax Thoirs and Allan Hamilton were in top form at the NCAA Championships, with Jax Just out of the medals in 4th, equalling his season's best pole vault of 5.50, nd Allan moving to 2nd all-time in the long jump, his 7.74 earning him 6th position.

8 March 2015. Scottish athletes took 2 medals on the final day of the European Indoor Championships at Prague with Chris O'Hare winning bronze in the 1500 metres and Kirsten McAslan anchoring the women's 4x400 relay team to the silver medal.

O'Hare finished just over a second behind the winner Jakub Holusa who set a Czech record of 3:37.68 and the Turk Ilham Tanui Ozbilen (3:37.74), running a season's best of 3:38.96. The medal follows on from his bronze at the European Outdoor Championships last year. Interviewd after the race, Chris said: "This was a tough race, with a quick, really solid pace. With a medal, I cannot be disappointed. Özbilen started with a solid pace, but I knew he is there and did not drop off and do something crazy. Well, Holusa ran a great race. I got a deep big cut at my left ankle from somebody else´s spikes, just on the first five meters because of some pushing. It bothered me for the first couple of laps, but then I just got on with it. This wound could not stop me. I am happy that I got a medal, but I know that I could have done better. But I do not think now "Maybe this, maybe that...".

Kirsten McAslan (photo finish image shown) ran a superb anchor leg, timed at 51.83, bringing the GB quartet home in 3:31.79, just 0.18 seconds behind the winning French team. McAslan, eliminated in the individual 400m semi finals, produced the fastest leg of anyone in the race, overhauling the Czech Republic to move up to 2nd and keeping the Polish athlete at bay. At 21 years and 188 days, she became the youngest Scottish medal winner at these championships since Yvonne Murray who took 3000 bronze in 1985 at 20 years 149 days and 3000 silver the following year at 21 years and 142 days.

Guy Learmonth came home 6th in 1:47.84 in the 800 metres with only 0.06 separating 4th, 5th and 6th and Jamie Bowie ran a 47.10 leg after a disastrous hand over from Conrad Williams left him in last place at the start of the 2nd leg. On the Saturday, Laura Muir had finished just out of the medals, 4th in the 3000 metres, and Allan Smith cleared 2.19 to finish 21st in the high jump qualifying.

The Scottish athletes produced strong performances at these championships, which can only augur well for the future.

2 March 2015. Ben Greenwood was the star turn at the England Athletics Age-Group Championships at Sheffield at the weekend. He ran away from the field in the Under-17 800 metres, winning by a massive 4.2 seconds in 1:51.62. That bettered his own PB, awaiting ratification as a Scottish record, of 1:54.15 and s now over 5 seconds faster than any other Scottish under-17 has run indoors. It also broke the UK under-17 best by over a second, the existing mark of 1:52.79 having been recorded by Richard Davenport in 2002. 

Banchory's Alisha Rees may not have won her under-17 200 metres, but she too is re-writing the record books. The record of 24.81 was set by Dawn Flockhart in 1983 and Alisha had already bettered that this year with a 24.78 run. At Sheffield, she lowered that considerably to 24.62 in the semi-final and then to 24.53 i the final, gaining the silver medal.

Scotland had 2 winners at the championships, both in the 800 metres. As well as Ben's record run, Carys McAulay triumphed in the under-20 women's 800 in 2:10.15, winning from Mhairi Hendry in 2:10.87 for a Scottish 1-2.

Elsewhere, Chris Bennett moved to 3rd all-time with a 73.00 hammer at Livingston, while our long jumpers are in fine form in the States over a variety of events. Both Allan Hamilton and James McLachlan set PBs at 60 metres - 6.78 and 6.79 respectively - and at triple jump, where McLachlan's jump of 15.91 moved him to 2nd all-time and Hamilton set a PB of 14.94. 

21 February 2015. Scottish athletes continued their form from the British Championships and had a fine day at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix, setting 4 personal bests on the day. Allan Smith might not have set a new best, but in a very tight high jump, his first time clearances through to 2.26 metres saw him win the event, backing up his success at the British Championships. David Smith also cleared 2.26 for a new personal best, but that placed him in 5th spot as he only cleared it on his 2nd attempt. Guy Learmonth was the top Brit in the 800 metres, finishing 7th, but his run of 1:47.38 was a new indoor best and, most importantly, bettered the qualifying standard of 1:48.00 for the European Championships. That will see him automatically selected for the team for Prague which will be announced on Tuesday. Behind him, Glasgow Caledonian student, Englishman James Bowness set a PB of 1:47.59 and with his 2nd place at the British Champs, will join Learmonth in the team. Kirsten McAslan also sealed her place when she followed up her British title with a 52.28 best in the 400, well inside the 53.00 qualifying standard. That leapfrogs Kirsten over Sinead Dudgeon and Melanie Neef to rank 2nd all-time at the event behind Eilidh Child. Laura Muir, who gained the 1500 standard in Stockholm in midweek, added the 3000 standard with her run of 8:54.07, finishing top Brit ahead of Stephanie Twell, who set a PB of 9:03.55 in a rare indoor outing, although she has run faster during a 2 mile race. Chris O'Hare did not impress though, finishing adrift at the back of the field in the 1500. 

15 February 2015. Scots recorded 4 gold medals at he British Championships at Sheffield, their biggest gold medal haul at the event since 2009. Allan Smith rose to a new PB of 2.29 (only Geoff Parsons has jumped higher among Scots) with the added significance of gaining the European Championship qualifying standard. He will be automatically selected for Prague. Laura Muir won the 1500 title, her 3rd consecutive indoor title, in 4:13.06, a fraction outside the qualifying standard, but will be selected on the basis of her outdoor marks. Guy Learmonth took the 800 title in 1:49.00, outside the standard by a second, and he will now chase the mark at next week's Birmingham Grand Prix. Kirsten McAslan  finds herself in the same position after winning the 400 in 53.05, five-hundredths outside the standard, but a new PB. There were personal bests for Sarah Warnock (6.37 silver, long jump), Katy Brown (2:03.39 bronze, 800), Zara Asante (13.00 triple, bronze) and Jamie Bowie took bronze in the 400. In the Saturday heats, Mhairi Hendry bettered Laura Muir's under-20 indoor record by 1.12 seconds with her run of 2:07.00. 

10 February 2015. The results from last week's Scottish Schools Championships on 4-5 February are now up and there was some fine sprinting over the 2 days. Pride of place goes to Banchory's Alisha Rees (pic: Bobby Gavin), who won the Over 16 Girls 200m by almost a second in 24.78 to break Dawn Flockhart's 1983 Scottish Under-17 record of 24.81. The new record may not last long as Under 15 Lauren Greig ran 25.44 to go 3rd all-time, with a time bettering Rees' U15 performances last year. Joel McFarlane moved to 4th AT U15 in the 60H and others to move into the top 10 all-time included Lewis Brown, Joe Arthur, Jill Cherry, Holy McArthur, Erin Wallace, Jade Henry and Lauren Tenn Mills.

4 February 2015. 400 metres runners Jamie Bowie and Patrick Swan are among the athletes whose change of first claim club has been confirmed by scottishathletics. Bowie has left Inverness and Swan has left Edinburgh AC, both joining Team East Lothian. Both athletes have started the year well, with Swan winning the Scottish indoor title at the weekend and Bowie being the sole Scottish victor at the recent international match. Both are coached by Piotr Haczek. The full list of club changes, taking effect from 1 February, are: 

Esme Balfour, Abbie Gibson and James Walter, all Haddington E.L.P. to Team East Lothian; Jamie Bowie, Inverness H to Team East Lothian; Aidan Ferry and Ben Ferry, both Forres H to Inverness H; Ellie Fulton, North Ayrshire AC to Kilbarchan AC; Patrick Gibson, Perth Strathtay H to Edinburgh AC; Fraser, Iona and Morgan MacDougall, all Giffnock North AAC to East Kilbride AC; Chloe Mason, East Kilbride AC to VP Glasgow AC; Patrick Swan, Edinburgh AC to Team East Lothian; Mark Taylor, Caithness AAC to North Highland H.

2 February 2015. "I won't share you" sang The Smiths, "With the drive and ambition, the zeal I feel, this is my time". Scotland's own high jumping Smiths, Allan and David, showed the drive and ambition but did not quite follow the lyrics as they both shared a championship best performance and the Scottish native record, clearing 2.25 metres at the Scottish National Championships at the Emirates on Sunday. But it was Allan, putting aside the misery of last year, who proved it was his time, winning the national title on countback. With 4-times winner Ray Bobrownicki clearing 2.20 in 3rd, this was the first time 3 Scots have cleared 2.20 indoors in the one competition. It was good to see our top athletes competing head-to-head in a national championship - shame that others don't follow suit.

One of the longest-standing indoor records was Linsey Macdonald's under-17 800 metres record of 2:10.3, set nearly 35 years ago at Cosford in March 1980. It was finally removed by Giffnock's Sarah Eunson, still aged 15, 5th in the senior final with 2:10.28. It has been a remarkable improvement for Sarah, who entered the indoor season with a best of 2:18.58 before showing dramatic progress with a 2:12.92 run at December's Yuletide Open.

In the sprints, there was better quality and depth in the women's events with Zoey Clark recording an excellent sprint double of 7.58/23.96, only the 4th Scot to break 24 seconds for 200 indoors. Behind her, the improving Beth Dobbin, Edinburgh AC but based at Loughborough, moved to 6th all-time with her 24.17. In the sort sprint, Clark was followed home by Alisha Rees, improving from 7.74 to 7.61, and within 0.03 of the remarkable Linsey Macdonald's long-standing record. On the men's side, Grant Plenderleith set a PB of 21.58 in the heats on his way to his 200 win, but it was under-20 Alec Thomas, formerly of Cambuslang, who was the surprise, winning the 60 and coming 2nd in the 200, reducing his PBs from 7.12/22.20 to 6.98/21.70. Pre-race favourite Cameron Tindle ran the fastest 60 of the day, 6.97 in the heats, before having to withdraw through injury.

There was promise, too, in the 60 metres hurdles where, despite the disappointment of only 2 athletes contesting the men's event,  Pitreavie junior Jack Lawrie recorded a PB of 8.37 for victory over Andrew Murphy, also with a PB. Mhairi Patience won a hotly-contested women's race, taking her 2013 best of 8.98 down to 8.75 to finish ahead of junior Heather Paton, who equalled her best of 8.81 in second.

Elsewhere on the track, the quality was generally disappointing, although Madeleine Murray set a new PB of 2:05.90 in the 800, finishing behind Leah Barrow, one of 5 English title winners, including an English 1-2-3 in the women's triple jump.

Chukwudi Onyia won the men's triple with 15.40, 5th all-time while Sarah Warnock moved to 4th all-time as she edged her LJ PB to 6.21. Behind her, 16-year-old Rachel Alexander added 20cm to her PB, finishing 3rd with 5.93.

There were disappointments however. Although Kirsty Yates (always supportive of Scottish championships) won the shot convincingly with 14.43, she was nearly 5 metres ahead and both silver and bronze went at under 10 metres. It is difficult to understand why some of our athletes don't consider a championship medal worth chasing, as some were won all too easily. There were fields of 3 or less in the men's hurdles and pole vault, and in the women's 1500, pole and shot.

29 January 2015. We are always seeking to add new content to the website and today have added a new indoor page which you can find in the menu at the top of the page.

As well as providing a link to the pages with indoor records, indoor championships and all-time lists, you can discover who has won the most Scottish championships, who has represented Scotland the most in internationals and see the full results of all Scotland's indoor internationals, all the British internationals and details of every Scot who has represented Scotland and Britain indoors.

We have also extended the indoor all-time lists to all the age-groups.

As ever, any corrections and additions gratefully received.

24 January 2015. Germany took the honours by just one point from GB and France at the Sainsbury's British International at the Emirates in what was, compared with previous stagings, a fairly low-key event with the quality certainly lower than the memorable 2014 event.

For Scotland, Jamie Bowie was the only Scottish winner (against 6 in 2014) but this was a less-experienced Scottish side with many of the leading names absent for one reason or another - not doing an indoor season, based in America, or just not available for selection. As a result, many of the Scottish team were competing in their first international and will have learned considerably from the occasion.

Jamie Bowie took the 400 event in 47.38, ahead of Conrad Williams in 47.52 and second places went to Guy Learmonth and Ray Bobrownicki on the men's side and both 4 x 400 metres relay teams. There were also personal bests for 16-year-old Cameron Tindle, 6.92 in the 60 metres; Sam Adams, 4.80 in the pole vault; and Kirsten McAslan, 53.40 in the 400 metres.

Elsewhere, some athletes will have been made aware of what is necessary to get to the levels required to compete at this level. This was noticeable in the women's 60 where Kathryn Christie's 7.64 was well adrift of the 3 athletes in front of her, and in the women's long jump where Sarah Warnock's 6.18 was considerably short of those in front of her. Both our hurdlers finished at the back of the 4 as well.  

17 January 2015. Ben Greenwood (pictured) continued his fine indoor form with a 3:55.5 1500 at the Scottish National Open which took nearly 7 seconds from Alastair Currie's Under 17 record of 4:02.9, a record that has stood since 1981. It also bettered the UK Under-17 best of 3:56.82 set by Brighton's Archie Davis last weekend. However, the nature of this meeting, with mixed races, means that the presence of Laura Muir in the race, 6th in 4:10.4, will likely mean the performance will not be accepted as a record. One performance that should stand as a record is that of Reuben Nairne of Giffnock. Competing in the U13 Boys' 60 metres hurdles, he improved on his recent best of 9.62 with his fine time of 9.47.

There were some good performances elsewhere with Cameron Tindle winning the 60 metres in 6.94, Greg Louden beating Jamie Bowie in the 200, Zoey Clark's sprint runs of 7.59 and 24.34, and Sarah Warnock's long jump of 6.20.

5 January 2015.  It's a new year and we wish all followers and visitors to the website, whether athletes, coaches, officials or fans, every success in 2015. We've made some changes to the website with the 2014 news stories being moved to a separate page and a "What's new" page to keep you informed of changes to the website, actual and planned. You can find these pages through the menu on the right.

The first weekend saw a host of fine indoor performances with Scottish bests set at 600 and 3000 metres. Laura Muir (pictured, photo by Phil McCloy) bettered the native record in the 3000 at the Emirates although as it was in a mixed race it won't receive record status. That also is the case with Kathryn Gillespie's Under 20 best. There were also new Scottish bests at 600 metres by Kirsten McAslan, bettering Linsey Macdonald's long-standing performance and an Under 17 best by Ben Greenwood to follow on from his recent 800 performance.