Photo by Bobby Gavin
There seemed a certain symmetry about our comms ‘caravan’ moving from the Team Scotland announcement for Glasgow 2026 throughout Friday to grassroots events in Kilmarnock over the weekend.
We reference on a regular basis the pathway for athletics in Scotland and that very definitely includes events in our 4J Outdoor Season like the National Track Relays for all ages on Sunday.
Some 24 hours earlier some of the youngest athletes at 23 of our clubs made up 39 teams at our 4J SUPERteams National Final – a great learning experinece for these youngsters.
Come Sunday and the same Ayrshire Athletics Arena played host to more competition with medals on offer at the various distances, including a medley event for younger teams and, for the first time, medals for Masters in their 3 x 800m event.
The top performance of the day arrived via an Aberdeen AAC team making a very worthwhile journey to and from Ayrshire.
Victory in the Senior Women’s 3x800m came with a new Scottish Record for the trio of Carly Cameron, Hannah Taylor and Hannah Cameron.
Hannah Cameron, sixth in the UK Champs Women’s 800m only eight days previously at Birmingham, led Aberdeen home at 6:39.74. Stirling Uni’s top team (with three in the race) had a really strong run at 6:49.73 with Edinburgh AC in third.
‘We are delighted with that team effort and it has made a long trip a really enjoyable one,’ said Aberdeen AAC coach Nichola Crawford.
‘You make plans for what people might run and then arrive to find conditions are really windy! But all three athletes did so well and Hannah Cameron had a little leeway (with the existing Record at 6:43) and was comfortable enough. Hannah is racing next weekend but wanted so much to be part of a team chasing a Scottish Record.’
Also at Senior level, the Men’s 4x100m final was a close run affair with the three teams on the podium separated by 19 hundredths.
VP Glasgow duly collected the golds for their 42.07 team effort with Aberdeen AAC carrying off the silver medals at 42.24 from Law and District AAC, who clocked 42.26.
Later in the day, VP-Glasgow’s women made it a 4x100m double with their success from Edinburgh and Glasgow Uni. Quite how many national relay medals that is now for Chloe Lambert we could not even begin to guess!
There were title wins for Glasgow Uni (women) and Pitreavie AAC (men) in the 4x400m finals towards the end of the programme. Harris Mackie’s anchor leg split for Pitreavie was an impressive 48.63.
With over 220 teams entered and 500+ athletes involved, we say a big thank you as ever to clubs who committed to National Championship event. It’s important for our sport to have that support.
Thank You, also, to our wonderful scottishathletics Officials for making the event happen.
Photos by Bobby Gavin
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