1 ATHLETE INCLUSION

Athletes can be qualified to represent Scotland in competition through birth, parentage or residence. Often, an athlete can be eligible to represent more than one country, e.g. an individual born in England with a Scottish parent, or vice versa. On occasion, athletes change their eligibility from one country to another. The following 'rules’ have been applied in the preparation of these lists.

 

1.1 Athletes born in Scotland or with Scottish parent(s)

Such athletes representing Scottish clubs are treated as being Scottish unless there is evidence to the contrary.

 

Athletes born in Scotland, or with Scottish parent(s), but competing for a club outside Scotland:

(a) If Scottish eligibility claimed before their 20th birthday and they have not competed for another nation, all performances are included in age-group rankings and annual ranking lists are updated to include them.

(b)  If Scottish eligibility claimed after their 20th birthday, performances are included from the year of notification.

 

1.2 Athletes eligible to represent Scotland through a residential qualification

Their performances after meeting the residential qualification are included.

 

1.3 Change of Allegiance

A small number of athletes have changed allegiance from one country to another during their career.

 

Where the athlete has represented Scotland before the change of allegiance, e.g. Brian Doyle and Steph Hayward, Scotland to Ireland; Paul Bannon, Scotland to Canada; Paul Mardle, Scotland to England, their performances prior to the change are retained in the all-time lists. Such athletes are noted in the lists with, e.g. [>IRL], [>CAN], [>ENG], after their name.

 

Where the athlete has not represented Scotland before the change of allegiance, e.g. Paul Evans, their performances are not included in the all-time lists.

 

1.4 Dual Status Athletes

Where an athlete who lives outside the U.K. declares Scottish eligibility (usually for Commonwealth Games representation), that athlete can continue to compete for his current country in international competition, e.g. Australian athletes such as Blair Young, Mark Taylor and Angus Proudfoot.

 

In the case of such athletes, only performances achieved when representing Scotland or competing within the UK are included. Otherwise, they are shown in a sub-note.

 

1.5 Married Names

Some websites amend past lists to show female athletes under their current married names. That can be confusing when its different from the name you remember an athlete by. The all-time lists show both the maiden name and the married name with the name that existed at the time of the performance shown in CAPITAL letters. So, for example, Eilidh CHILD/Doyle means that the athlete was known as Eilidh Child when she set the performance and Eilidh Doyle where the name is shown as Child/DOYLE.

 

2 PERFORMANCE INCLUSION

 

2.1 Fully automatic timing

All-time lists for events up to and including 400 metres are based on fully automatic timing. Hand-timed performances up to and including 200 metres are excluded.

 

Where photo finish times are available for older performances, these times are used in preference to the reported hand timed performances. The availability of a photo-finish camera dates back to the Olympic Games of 1948 and earlier (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fully_automatic_time) as well as the 1958 British Empire Games.

 

2.2 Indoor performances

Indoor performances have been included in the all-time lists for straight flat races (100m and 100m/110m hurdles) and for field events. As outdoor performances are based on a standardised 400 metres track, indoor performances have not been included in the main lists as indoor tracks can vary in circumference and banking.

 

2.3 Javelin

The specification of the men's and women's javelins were altered at different points (men 1986, women 1999) to reduce the distances achievable. Only throws with the current models are included in the main lists  with older model throws shown as a sub-list.

 

2.4 Combined events

The heptathlon and decathlon lists are calculated on the current 1984 IAAF Scoring Tables.  Performances set under earlier scoring tables have been re-calculated.

In 2010 the IAAF brought in a rule for records where the average wind speed across the 3 events of sprint, long jump and hurdles shall not exceed +2.0m/s. Prior to this, the rule was that no one event could have wind assistance in excess of +4.0 m/s.  Rather than re-state the lists on the basis of the new rules, performances are treated as wind-assisted based on the 'wind rule' existing at the time.

 

3 CLUB AFFILIATIONS

The club abbreviations used should represent the athlete's first-claim UK club at the time of the performance.

 

4 ROAD RANKINGS

 

4.1 Gun/chip timing

Under UKA/World Athletics Rules, the official results of a road race should be reported using gun time. With the growing use of chip timing only for races, chip timing has been used for rankings to give a consistent approach. The difference is minimal at the top end of races, but can have a significant effect for athletes further down the field in mass runner races.

 

4.2 Downhill performances

For record purposes, performances on a course (a) with an overall decrease in elevation of over 1m/km and/or (b) where the start and finish points are further apart than 50% of the race distance, are not allowable as records.

In the ranking lists, performances on such courses are included in the rankings  with the designation 'a' against the performance.

 

Performances with an overall decrease in elevation of over 5m/km are not included in the rankings. An example is the Baxter's Loch Ness marathon which has a drop of over 5m/km.

 

4.3 Intermediate times

Intermediate times (+) are only included in the main ranking lists for ultra running events (i.e., over marathon distance).