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):