Athlete of Year short-lists! Names revealed ahead of our 4J Annual Awards

Monday 26th September 2022

Our 4J Scottish Athlete of the Year nominees – Eilish McColgan, Laura Muir and Jake Wightman (photos by Bobby Gavin and British Athletics/Getty Images (Jake))

Tickets on sale online

Our 4J Annual Awards celebration Dinner is coming up next month – and we’re delighted now to share our Athlete of the Year nominees.

All the categories look extremely competitive after an amazing year which for our elite athletes featured that unique opportunity to compete at three major champs – World Champs, Commonwealth Games and European Champs.

Eilish McColgan, Laura Muir and Jake Wightman did more than just compete in Oregon, Birmingham and Munich, of course. They beat a regular path to the podium.

Unsurprisingly, these three are our contenders for the 4J Scottish Athlete of the Year award and it might well require a photo-finish verdict to split them!

It looks close, too, for the Para Athlete of the Year Award with contenders Sean Frame, Samantha Kinghorn and Melanie Woods all having excelled at Birmingham 2022.

Tickets are on sale now for the Dinner priced £50 per person and we anticipate high demand as we celebrate, acknowledge and recognise all aspects of our sport via awards for athletes, coaches, clubs, volunteers and Officials.

Buy tickets for 4J Annual Awards Dinner

Our 4J Para Athlete of the Year contenders – Sean Frame, Samantha Kinghorn and Melanie Woods (photos by Bobby Gavin)

BBC Scotland website coverage

‘I think Scottish Athlete of the Year this year could be pretty interesting!’ said Katharine Merry, who will join Geoff Wightman as our Guest of Honour at the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow on Saturday 29 October.

‘Athletes will be doing pretty well to make the short-lists, put it that way.

‘It’s brilliant the performances have set the bar so high and I have been so impressed.

‘There have been many highlights but for Team Scotland to come away with eight medals at Birmingham was tremendous and I understand the best in athletics for 40 years.

‘I actually think that accurately reflects the status of the current group of athletes headlined by Eilish McColgan, Laura Muir and Jake Wightman. It’s no surprise to see those three names short-listed and the Para category looks very competitive to me, too.’

It will be a special moment as well for our contenders at U20 and U17 level while the standards reached this year by Scottish Masters athletes is reflected in a short-list for that category which for 2022 features four names (rather than our now more usual three).

In alphabetical order, here are the Athlete of the Year short-lists for 2022 .  . .

4J Athlete of the Year:

Eilish McColgan (Dundee Hawkhill), Laura Muir (Dundee Hawkhill), Jake Wightman (Edinburgh AC)

4J Para Athlete of the Year:

Sean Frame, Samantha Kinghorn, Melanie Woods (all Red Star AC)

4J U20 Athlete of the Year:

Megan Keith (Inverness Harriers), Tendai Nyabadza (Harmeny AC), Paige Stevens (Falkirk Victoria Harriers)

4J U17 Athlete of the Year:

Corey Campbell (Team East Lothian), Dean Patterson (Glasgow School of Sport), Libby White (Ayr Seaforth)

4J Masters Athlete of the Year:

Paul Forbes (Edinburgh AC), Fiona Matheson (Falkirk Victoria Harriers), Charlotte Morgan (Carnethy HRC), Alastair Walker (Teviotdale Harriers)

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Geoff and Kath will be our Guests of Honour

Club and Coach Short-lists

Volunteer and Official Short-lists

Laura Muir and Owen Miller won our top Athlete of the Year titles in 2021 (photo by

Bobby Gavin)

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Tags: 4J Annual Awards, 4J Annual Awards Dinner, Eilish McColgan, Jake Wightman, Laura Muir, Melanie Woods, Samantha Kinghorn, Sean Frame