#Throwback . . . looking at 2016

Thursday 11th June 2020

Callum Hawkins savours bronze medal success at the 2016 Euro Cross in Sardinia (photo by Mark Shearman)

Road Running and Cross Country Commission website – see Archive

Welcome to our new #ThrowbackThursday occasional feature.

Each time we will dip into our photograph Archive and also our You Tube channel to take a snapshot of a particular year.

Initially, we will be looking between 2010 and 2019 given the material we have available and taking into account that there is already a lot of history archived on the Road Running and Cross Country Commission website.

In terms of track and field, check out Scotstats.net compiled by our scottishathletics Historian, Arnold Black, and also the History section on this site.

In the History pages of this site, you can peruse Arnold’s Archive as he looks at various stories about events, athletes, clubs from the past.

Check out Arnold’s Archive

Let’s start with a look at the Lindsays National XC at Falkirk that year and a second success in a row in the Senior Men’s race for Andrew Butchart.

The Central AC runner won by 15 seconds from Andy Douglas of Inverclyde with a bronze medal claimed by Mark Mitchell of Forres Harriers, a former 800-1500m double Scottish champion on the track.

Butchart was to use the National XC as a stepping stone towards Olympic selection for Rio and, remarkably, that applied also to the Senior Women’s champion.

Beth Potter of VP-Glasgow won in even more emphatic style after breaking away early on and it was left to Fionnuala Ross of Shettleston Harriers and Rosie Smith of Hunters Bog Trotters to take the silver and bronze.

Smith helped HBT win the team golds that day with Edinburgh AC landing the silver medals with Fife AC in third. Central, led by Butchart, won the men’s golds with Corstorphine AAC in second and Shettleston Harriers in third.

Photos from Falkirk in February 2016

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Fab 15! – Scots selected for Rio

As it transpired, Butchart and Potter were to be part of a huge Scottish cohort with Team GB and NI at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

That tally included three in the men’s marathon with Kilbarchan AAC brothers Callum Hawkins and Derek Hawkins joined by Tsegai Tewelde of Shettleston Harriers.

Callum was to take a superb ninth place in the marathon while on the track there were a string of final appearances.

Lynsey Sharp took sixth in the Women’s 800m final as she clocked a National Record in the process. Butchart, for his part, came home in sixth place in the men’s 5000m final.

Laura Muir was seventh in the 1500m final after making a bold bid for the podium and Eilish McColgan took 13th place in the Women’s 5000m final.

There was to be a medal for the Scotland ‘team’ in Rio, however.

Eilidh Doyle was part of the GB and NI quarter who landed bronze medals in the Women’s 4x400m behind America and Jamaica. Doyle had missed out on the 400m Hurdles final.

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Looking back, there were all sorts of highlights both at domestic and international level that year.

Here’s a couple of savour via photos and links to the coverage on this website.

At the European Championships in Amsterdam only a few weeks before Rio, Steph Twell took a fine bronze medal in the Women’s 5000m final – with fellow Scots Laura Whittle and Eilish McColgan also in the field. In fact, it was three Scots in the top six with Laura in fifth and Eilish in sixth!

Super Steph lands European bronze

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Individual bronze medallist Callum Hawkins is joined by fourth-placed Andy Butchart as GB and NI celebrate Senior Men’s team golds at the 2016 Euro Cross (Photo by Mark Shearman)

Callum bronze amid GB team gold glory

Then, late in the year, there was a superb Euro Cross event in Sardinia which saw Callum Hawkins become the first Scottish individual male medallist at this event – and helped lead Team GB and NI to Senior Men’s team golds.

The Rio marathon runner delivered a terrific performance to claim this place and win his own personal duel with his team-mate and fellow Scot Andy Butchart, who finished fourth some 12 seconds back.

Hawkins duly becomes the first Scottish male medallist ever at the European Cross Country Championships, with Rhona Auckland having won gold at U23 a couple of years ago.

Butchart had lead in the early stage and then Hawkins had a spell at the front but later they had to defer to two Turkish athletes on a fast course in Sardinia, with Aras Kaya taking the gold.

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