Butchart lands new Indoor 3000m Record – and Jake close, too

Monday 7th February 2022

Butchart in indoor action at Glasgow 2019 (photo by Bobby Gavin)

Andy Butchart brought down his own Scottish Indoor Record for 3000m with a superb run in New York.

The Central AC athlete was second behind a European Record to post 7:37.42 with fellow Scot Jake Wightman right in the mix, too, at fourth in 7:37.81.

Spanish athlete, Adel Mechaal, won the race in 7:30.82 to take a European best mark which had stood for 12 years.

With regard to the Scottish Record, Andy’s previous mark had been at 7:40.85 from a year ago in Germany.

So both Butchart and Wightman were inside the now old Record and were more than 12 seconds inside the GB qualifying standard for the World Indoors.

Many congratulations to Andy and his family and support team on posting a new Scottish Record once again!

At the same World Indoor Tour meet, Guy Learmonth was fifth in the 800m with 1:46.90. And Erin Wallace clocked an indoor PB to finish sixth in the Women’s 1500m race with 4:13.96.

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Good to see @DavidSmith_HJ starting off his season so solidly, with a qualifier for CG Birmingham already in the bank. Congrats to David and Coach Paul Harrison @PaulHar22649501 @gnaac1 @scotathletics https://t.co/GJqTYlF1FI

— Ken Allan (@kenallan123) February 4, 2022

It has been a hectic weekend and here are a couple of other track and field highlights (we hope to address cross country in a separate story in due course):

In High Jump it was a strong weekend for Scots as David Smith cleared 2.22m in France on Friday to top the British rankings. Lewis McGuire finished third in his competition in Hustopece with 2.15m as Claire McGarvey cleared 1.70m at the same event.

Joe Ewing is the latest Scot to run sub four minutes for the mile after a strong run in Boston at 3:58.87.

Ben Greenwood raced in New York and clocked another 1:48 run for 800m with 1:48.72.

Over the moon to have broken 4 minutes for the mile last night at BU. Huge thanks to everyone in my corner for the support from across the pond. Looking forward to the next one! https://t.co/vWSwThScpf

— Joe (@EwingJoee) February 6, 2022