Hitting the Mark . . . from L.A. to Aberdeen (with no gap in Watford)

Monday 19th May 2014

It was another highly encouraging weekend for Scottish athletes in locations as diverse as Los Angeles, Watford and Aberdeen.

Mark Mitchell was the new name on the list of those achieving Commonwealth Games standards and it was also a good few days for the likes of Beth Potter, David Bishop and Chris Bennett.

Let’s start this round-up and acknowledgement of good performances at the USATF meeting in California where Bishop ran 3.39.27 for the second fastest 1500m by a Scot this year.
It was his second Commonwealth Games qualifying time and puts Bishop in the frame to join Chris O’Hare at Hampden.

Lennie Waite ran another 3000m steeplechase standard at the same Los Angeles event with 9.56.08 a good run. Unfortunately, Kris Gauson and Josephine Moultrie were just outside the times required at 1500m for men and women with 3.44.38 and 4.15.66 respectively.

*Moving on to Watford on Saturday evening and Mitchell (pictured) was in superb form in his 1500m run to post his first qualifying standard.

The Forres Harriers athlete, who represented Scotland at the Glasgow International in January, clocked a PB of 3.41.96 to get under the mark required.

Beth Potter already has the 10,000m standard but she came up with one at 5000m, also, with 15.40.79 – the seventh best run by a Scot of all-time at that distance by our women.

There were PBs on Saturday for a clutch of athletes including Fife AC’s Jenny Tan at 800m and Jake Wightman at 1.47.93.

*Sunday morning in Manchester saw a handful of Scots involved in the Manchester 10k race won by Kenenisa Bekele with Andrew Lemoncello finishing the race but unfortunately injuring his hamstring.

Susan Partridge was in great form, however, with her 33.27 better than her run in Glasgow a week earlier and the best by a Scot this year. Susan finished seventh while, in the men’s race, Tewolde Mengisteab was 13th with 30.29. Neil Renault wasn’t far behind at 22nd with 30.44.

Edinburgh’s Gillian Palmer was 16th in the women’s race with 35.32.

*As the sun beat down in Loughborough on our in-form throwers, Chris Bennett was in the Scottish Men’s League action in Aberdeen.

And the Shettletson Harriers athlete came up with a PB performance and a league record (tbc) throw of 71.37. Chris is now fourth on the all-time list.

*Maria Lyle’s T35 100m run at Loughborough is a world record (subject to ratification via all the necessary paperwork). Maria clocked 14.83 on a great day for the Dunbar athlete.
The 14-year-old already has one world’s best mark pending for 200m following her 31.01 run on her international debut in Dubai a couple of months ago.

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