Record-breaker! Alyson smashes Scottish 200m mark and Neil lands gold, too

Sunday 23rd February 2025

Photo: Getty Images for British Athletics

Alyson Bell smashed the Scottish Indoor Record on her way to the Women’s 200m gold at the UK Indoor Champs.

A few minutes later the Giffnock North AC colours were back on top of the podium as Neil Gourley booked his place for the European Indoors with gold and a Championship Best in the Men’s 1500m.

Those were definitely the highlights in terms of Scottish performances in Birmingham as a small but determined cohort claimed six medals in total.

Two of those were in the jumps via Alessandro Schenini and Henry Clarkson while there was a 200m sprint double when Krishawn Aiken won bronze in the Men’s final.

Laura Muir took silver in the Women’s 3000m final won by Hannah Nuttall, with the Scot racing for the first time since the Olympics last August.

Bell’s performance over two days in the 60m and 200m was a huge encouragement and she won the final emphatically. Alyson’s time of 23.12 smashed the Scottish Indoor mark held by Zoey Clark at 23.36 as the Giffnock/Edinburgh Uni athlete followed up fifth place in the 60m on Saturday night (7.31).

‘This is the first season that I have given indoor 200m a real try,’ said Alyson.

‘Coming into the championships, I thought I was in a good place, but it turns out I was in better shape than I realised. The last 50m, the crowd really helped, and that is why I love running indoors. Getting a gold medal as my first indoor medal has given me a huge boost going into outdoors.’

Aiken clocked 21.37 for his medal moment in the Men’s 200m final. In Para 60m, Cara Murphy was fifth in 9.00.

Photo: Getty Images for British Athletics

Neil Gourley will head to Apeldoorn for the Europeans with high hopes.

‘Qualification was the goal today; the record was a bonus,’ he said,

‘ The pace was fast today. I had to be careful but thankfully no-one went down. The competition environment is valuable as part of my preparation as it is good practice for championships racing.’

Kane Elliott was ninth in that race (3:45.08) while Stefanie Tucker ran a PB of 9:21.62 in Laura’s race. Erin Wallace and Hannah Cameron were fourth and fifth in the Women’s 800.

The medal collection in terms of Scots had started on Saturday afternoon when Henry Clarkson took a well-earned bronze in the Triple Jump.

Henry came up with a final round 15.45m leap to do so and we understand the Edinburgh AC athlete became the first Scot to make the podium in this event for around 30 years.

The jumps success continued on Sunday.

Alessandro Schenini took silver in the men’s Long Jump with a best of 7.65m and for the Giffnock North AC athlete that followed up bronze outdoors last summer.

BUCS champion Stephen Mackenzie was just outside the podium in fourth with 7.47m for the Edinburgh AC athlete. Team East Lothian’s Adam Hoole was at 7.18m. Amy Kennedy was fifth in the shot put competition with 14.61m.

On day one, Adam was fifth in the 60m Hurdles with 7.99.