Busy 4J National Open as Dean sets Native Record for 200m Indoors

Saturday 21st January 2023

Dean Patterson of Glasgow School of Sport on his way to superb 21.23 run for 200m Native Record (photo by Bobby Gavin)

National Open – online results

By Sue Gyford, Digital Media Officer

Hundreds of athletes packed the Emirates Arena in Glasgow today for a superb start to the indoor season, at the 4J Studios National Open.

Always a special event, with seeded events spanning different age groups and genders in a single field, there were PBs galore, as competitors from across the country set their lines in the sand for the season to come.

Hard, perhaps, to believe that this time last year we were still feeling the tail end of Covid restrictions with limited numbers in some events, which added to the sense of occasion this year, as around 700 athletes and a healthy complement of supporters took to the Emirates.

Photos by Bobby Gavin on Facebook

Jenny Selman on her way to a solid 800m run (photo by Bobby Gavin)

It’s always hard to single out individual performances at an event where no champions are crowned, and so many individual performances are of note for participants concerned. But among those catching the eye were:

The opening race saw Jenny Selman post a 2:02.70 run in the 800m – a decent opener from the Fife AC athlete, and a new Best for this event at the Open (previously held by Jemma Reekie with a 2:03.06 run in 2019)
U20 athlete Dean Patterson (Glasgow School of Sport) ran 21.23 in the 200m, which we believe puts him below the Commonwealth Youth Games qualifying standard of 21.80 – a great run at this stage of the year. It also landed Dean a Native Record for indoors, held previously by Elliot Bunney. Congratulations to Dean, his family and coach David Watson.
There was a new Scottish Masters V45 400m indoor record for Ian Horsburgh of Central AC, in 51.71 – subject, of course, to ratification.
Many creditable performances among the field athletes, such as Logan Mitchell of Kilmarnock, who threw a significant PB of 14.03m in the shot put.
Lesley Bell of Garscube delivered another British Masters Record at w45 with 4:37.58 in the 1500m (to eclipse the 4:38.05 set by Clare Elms in 2009). Congratulations!

One of the highlights of today’s National Indoor Open was seeing Ian Horsburgh lowering his v45 400m indoor record by 2 seconds, running a very speedy 51.7! ?@scotathletics? pic.twitter.com/mpTfbPXikK

— David Ovens (@OvensDavid) January 21, 2023

The day saw also numerous new Best performances for the National Open, such as Alyson Bell’s 7.53 run at 60m, which fells the previous mark of 7.55, run by Zoey Clark two years ago.

Congratulations to the many athletes achieving these event Best times, along with all those taking home their own Personal Bests today.

Colin Hutchison, chief executive of scottishathletics praised the hard work that had taken place across the sport in recent years to keep athletes involved and able to return to competition.

‘There’s so much credit to the clubs and the coaches for the work that they’ve done in the last two and a half, three years, to keep all the athletes engaged and then to bring them back to competition once competition returned.

‘So to actually be back at an event like this and be able to enjoy seeing all that hard work come to fruition, I’m sure is really pleasing for the clubs and for the coaches, and we’re so grateful for the work they’ve put in to ensure that those athletes have come back so strongly.

‘Alongside that when you look around today there’s so many purple T-shirts and jumpers here, great support from the Officials community both on the admin side and out on the track and the field as well, so – really pleased to see such a good turnout.’