Following on from our individual SATS Challenges, we have the track and field club of the year Challenges. These are based on the Scottish rankings on Power of 10 with 20 points awarded for 1st place down to 1 point for 20. 

In the senior category, Edinburgh AC retained the senior title but their winning margin closed to a mere 12 points over Victoria Park City of Glasgow AC. Aberdeen AAC performed strongly to share 3rd place with Giffnock North AC.

Today we cover the age-groups and its a fight for supremacy between Giffnock North AC and Victoria Park City of Glasgow AC but the two clubs didn't have it all their own way. They were beaten to the Under 20 title and VPG failed to make the top 10 at Under 13.

The age-group tables can be seen here or by clicking the link in the heading above.

SATS, 6 DECEMBER 2023

... Josh Kerr! 

Our 1500m World Champion adds the SATS Challenge title to his 2023 honours, heading off the challenge of Laura Muir in 2nd and Jemma Reekie in 3rd.

Click on the SATS Challenge heading above to see the top 100 rankings for 2023.

The SATS Challenge top 100 countdown begins. Our ranking of the top 100 outdoor track and field athletes for 2023 based on the SATS Scoring Tables. 20 athletes a day over five days, we start with 81-100, including Sara Barbour (pictured, photo by Bobby Gavin), Lynsey Sharp's return and steeplechaser Michael Cameron.

Click on the SATS Challenge heading above to see the top 100 rankings as they unfold.

The strength in depth of men's middle-distance running in 2023 has dominated our SATS Challenge rankings and the under-20 age-group was no exception. Emerging on top was Conan Harper of Giffnock North (pictured, no 130, by Bobby Gavin) whose outstanding times at 3000m and 5000m saw him selected for the European Under-20 Championships. He finished ahead of Harmeny's Tendai Nyabadza and Natasha Phillips of Dundee Hawkhill in our top three. Click on the SATS Challenge heading above to see the top 20 rankings.

Oliver Patton of Kilbarchan on his way to winning the Scottish Under-17 1500m championship (picture Bobby Gavin) and on his way to winning the SATS Challenge Under-17 age-group, repeating the success he had in the under-15 age-group two years ago. His performances at 1500m, 3000m and 2000m steeplechase saw him overcome Moorfoot long jumper Louis Whyte and Giffnock's 3000m runner Craig Shennan. Kilbarchan had double success with Amy Teasdale the leading female. Click on the SATS Challenge heading above to see the top 20 rankings.

Winner of our Under 15 Challenge is East Kilbride's Angus Wilkinson, repeating his success in the age-group in 2022. With a string of outstanding performances from 800 metres through to 3000 metres, he held off the challenge from Whitemoss sprinter Emma Clark and Lois MacRae, 800m and 1500m runner from Inverness. Click on the SATS Challenge heading above to see the top 20 rankings. Photo credit: Bobby Gavin.

The popular SATS Challenge is underway. Our 9th year of ranking track and field athletes from under-13 to seniors. With updated scoring tables, we start with the under-13s and our clear winner is Scottish 800 metres champion, high jump champion and pentathlon champion, Dionne Maguinness of Airdrie Harriers (photo credit: Bobby Gavin).

To see our full table of top 20 under 13s, see this link.

BUDAPEST, 23 August 2023. JOSH KERR is the new World Athletics 1500 metres champion, taking over after Jake Wightman's (JW) 2022 title win. In a race highly reminiscent of last year's World championship in Eugene, Kerr positioned himself perfectly on Jakob Ingebrigtsen's shoulder for the final 200m which he completed in 26.55 seconds (JW 27.11) to win in 3: 29.38 (JW 3:29.23).

It was Kerr's fourth attempt at this championship having been eliminated in the heats in 2017, finished 6th in 2019 (3:32.52) and 5th in 2022 (3:30.60). In between, he won bronze at the 2021 Olympics (3:29.05).  

Kerr becomes the 3rd Scot to win a World Championship title, following Liz McColgan's victory at 10000 metres in 1991 and Jake Wightman's 2022 win.

Neil Gourley, who had qualified through a couple of messy qualifying runs, never got himself into contention in the final and an admirable 3:31.10 time was only good enough for 9th place, such was the quality of the field. 10 athletes ran 3:31.25 or faster.

Alessandro Schenini produced the 'wow' moment at the Scottish National Championships at Grangemouth at the weekend as he became the first Scot to long jump 8 metres in Scotland. The effort came in the last round of the competition and was needed as Stephen MacKenzie had already bettered Darren Ritchie's native record of 7.80m and led the competition with 7.84m.

There was a native record, too, in the last event of the championships as Nicholas Percy produced a 62.93m discus throw to better his pending record the previous week at Scotstoun of 61.14m.

Also in the discus, Kirsty Law continued her supremacy in the event and won her 14th title, the most-ever in a single event by a female athlete. Its her 17th medal in the event, a total she shares with Mhairi Porterfield who gained her 17th shot put medal at the weekend. With a medal in the hammer as well, Mhairi took her overall total to 28 medals, 3 clear of any other athlete in the women's events.

Jack Lawrie's victory in the 400 metres hurdles was his 8th medal in the event, 7 of them gold, both records for the event, and Greg Millar's absence in the javelin brought an end to his run of 10 consecutive javelin victories. In his absence, veteran Dave Sketchley took the title for the second time, his previous victory being 22 years ago!

Jane Davidson produced two fine sprints, both personal bests, to win the 100 metres flat and 100 metres hurdles, a unique double that has never been achieved in the history of the women's championships.

In the Under-17 championships, Emma Clark, still an under-15, produced the outstanding performance with a new under-15 record of 24.25 seconds, just 0.03 slower than the winning time in the senior championships.

Elsewhere, there were Scots competing at the BMC meeting at Stretford, sprint races at Newham, and in Belgium over the weekend. It is a shame that Scottish international athletes can't prioritise the Scottish championships for one weekend in the year.

The Scottish Championships publication of the 1-2-3 at the senior championships has been updated and can be found by clicking the photo below, or going to the archive pages.

MONACO, 21 July 2023. In a sensational women's one mile race in which every athlete set a personal best, Faith Kipyegon destroyed the existing world record (Sifan Hassan, 4:12.33) with an extraordinary 4:07.64, almost seven seconds clear of the field. 

Behind her, Laura Muir finished in fourth - Ireland's Ciara Mageean was 2nd, Freweyni Hailu of Ethiopia 3rd - in a new British record time of 4:15.24, beating Zola Budd's UK record of 4:17.57  from 1985 and Muir's own Scottish record of 4:18.03.  

As the pacemakers went through 400m in 61.76 and 800m in 2:04.10, Muir was 5th in 62.9 and 2:07.6.  Kipyegon led at 1200m in 3:06.66 with Muir 4th in 3:12.0. Muir passed 1500m in 3:58.09.

Muir does like Monaco and the Herculis Meeting - her 800m and 1000m national records were both set at the venue.

NEW! Now added to the website are top 50 lists covering Road & Ultra Running. You can find the all-time lists HERE.

Our senior men and women's all-time outdoor lists have now been updated to 31 March 2023 AND extended to 50-deep rankings for all main events.  Club affiliations have been added and relay lists are included for the first time. You can find the all-time lists HERE.

OUR Athletes Archives have been updated to the end of 2022 and are available on the Archive pages. The two documents, one for the men and one for the women, show the annual performances of every athlete who has featured in the Scottish senior rankings since the 1959 rankings became the first list to be published, They also include athletes' championship records as well. In addition, for those athletes who had pre-1959 performances, these performances and championship records have now been added. Also in progress is a re-design of many of the  website pages, to hopefully make navigation easier and items easier to find. More changes and additions to follow.

26 February 2023. Another weekend and more records tumble. At the Atlantic Coast Conference Indoor Championships, University of Virginia's Alix Still scored 4177 points in the women's pentathlon to better the existing national record of 4096, set by Aileen Wilson in 2002. Alix won the silver medal.

Starting with a PB in the 60 metres hurdles of 8.41 (5th all-time) for 1037 points, she equalled her season's best in the high jump (1.68m, 830 points), had a season's best 11.64m put in the shot (637), long jumped 5.97m (12th all-time) for 840 points, and completed with 2:19.28 for 800 metres for 833 points. Alix had reached 4083 points in January to be within 13 points of Aileen Wilson's record.

In Birmingham at the World Athletics Indoor Tour final, Neil Gourley set new figures for the 1500 metres with Tour victory in 3:32.48. That performance bettered the existing Scottish and British records of 3:32.86 held by Josh Kerr. Kerr himself finished 5th in the race behind Gourley in 3:34.93.

Back in the USA, Adam Clayton continued his run of reducing the Scottish indoor 200 metres record with a run of 20.59 seconds in third place at the Big 12 Indoor Championships at Lubbock. This is the third time Adam has bettered the existing record this year, his performances last year having not been ratified as records.

BIRMINGHAM, 19 February 2023. Guy Learmonth continued his good indoor form to win the 800 metres title at the British Indoor Championships. His 4th gold medal was his 11th medal at the Championships, two more than the next best Scot, high jumper Geoff Parsons.

Parsons, with 5 gold medals, is the joint leader in gold medals with Rosemary Stirling/Wright and Laura Muir.

Learmonth's win was one of three gold medals for Scots at the Championships this weekend. Neil Gourley won the 1500 metres, improving on his silver last year, and four years since his previous victory.

Will Grimsey took the high jump title with 2.16 metres, his first British title, and the fourth Scottish high jump winner in the last ten years.

Part 2 of our annual review based on our 2022 Annual Scottish Rankings looks at the trend of each women's track and field event pre- and post-pandemic. As with the men, we've compared the 10th position in the Scottish rankings for 2022 with the average mark for that position across the five years from 2015-2019.

The result is not great. Of the 16 events reviewed (10000m, Steeplechase and Heptathlon have insufficient numbers ranked), ten fall into the negative column, i.e. 10th place is poorer than the 2015-2019 average. The long throws have all suffered with little depth to the performances and in all, 10th place is over 5% below the 5-year average. The 400m hurdles collapsed badly, over 8 seconds down on the average, and at the bottom of our table.

On the plus side, the 5000 metres follow the pattern in the men's event, with a huge 41 seconds improvement on the average. The three sprint events are all in the positive column, but surprisingly the 800 and 1500m have dropped slightly, despite our success at top level.

Here is the women's table:

Athletics has undoubtedly come back strongly after the pandemic but how have individual events in Scotland compared with where they were pre-pandemic? To coincide with the release today of our 2022 Annual Scottish Rankings we have carried out a comparison of each track and field event pre- and post-pandemic. We've compared the 10th position in the Scottish rankings for 2022 with the average mark for that position across the five years from 2015-2019.

While the majority of track events were stronger than the 5-year average, the majority of field events were weaker. In part one of our review, the men's events, the biggest improvement, a 3.78% rise, came in the 5000 metres. Track and shoe technology improvements have undoubtedly played a part here with the improvement being the equivalent of 33 seconds. Next, surprisingly, the discus where 40.21m in 10th was 1.36m above the 5-year average (3.51%). The 100m showed a 2.75% improvement as the short sprints have progressed well.

On the downside, the hammer throw was down 11.98% on the average, a drop of 5.74 metres, and there was a fall in the triple jump of 6.55% and a decline in the steeplechase of 6.29% (37 seconds slower than the average).

Here is the men's table (decathlon excluded as less than 10 athletes ranked).

FAYETTEVILLE, 28 January 2023.  Nicole Yeargin continued her electric start to the 2023 year with a 51.02 run at the Razorback Invitational at Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA. The performance eclipses Eilidh Doyle's 51.45 national indoor 400m record, set in 2013.

Yeargin had hot competition as Abby Steiner went through 200m in 23.24, Shamier Little 23.53 and Yeargin in 23.87. That's the way it stayned with Yeargin 3rd behind Steiner's 50.59 and Little's 50.64.

Yeargin's record follows on from her Scottish 300 metres indoor best of 36.89 at the Hawkeye Pro Classic last weekend.

The record is subject to ratification procedures.

22 January 2023. It has been a sensational weekend for Scottish sprinting. Following Dean Patterson's indoor native 200 metres record, Scottish athletes in the United States have set about re-writing the best performances over 300 metres.

Rebecca Grieve and Brodie Young are at the University of New Mexico and were in competition at the impressively named Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr. Collegiate Invitational Meeting. Rebecca won her 300m race in 38.81 seconds, a new under-20 indoor best, replacing  the hand-timed 39.8s  from Evelyn McMeekin (1974) and Gemma Nicol (2004). Brodie then won his race and placed 2nd overall at the event in 33.94, bettering Praise Olatoke's 34.02 from 2000.

Then today Nicole Yeargin opened her season with a victory at the Hawkeye Pro Classic in 36.89 seconds, improving Lee McConnell's 2005 best of 37.57.

Note these are classed as Scottish bests with record status generally given only to championship events.

21 January 2023. 16 year old Dean Patterson - he turns 17 on the 30th of this month - bettered Elliot Bunney's Scottish 200 metres native record of 21.28 seconds with his run of 21.23 at the 4J Studios scottishathletics National Indoor Open. Bunney's record was set in 1991.

It is a personal best for Patterson who ran 21.26 outdoors last year as an under-17. He is now in his first year as an under-20 and will still be an under-20 in 2025! The under-20 indoor record itself is Cameron Tindle's 21.14 set at Sheffield 7 years ago.

The senior native records are for performances set in Scotland by Scottish-qualified athletes.

1 January 2023. Jake Wightman and Josh Kerr are ranked 3rd and 6th in the world in the 1500m event with Neil Gourley at 14th in the year-end World Athletics rankings. The World Athletics world ranking lists at the end of 2022 show Jake Wightman is the highest placed Scot overall. The World Champion has leapt from 180th last year to 16th in the current men's rankings. Fellow 1500m runner Josh Kerr also places in the top 100, in 90th position. Laura Muir is again our top woman athlete, 34th overall in the women's rankings, down  from 25 in 2021. She is ranked 3rd in the individual 1500m event. Jemma Reekie, moves up to 62nd in 2021, falls out of the top hundred, with Eilish McColgan moving to 2nd Scot in 119th place.   Here are the leading Scottish athletes at the end of 2022 (2021 position in brackets):