Team effort helps Glasgow Jaguars to third – Dawn throws U20 Javelin Record

Monday 17th July 2023

Report by Moira Maguire

On a day when gale force winds threatened to spoil the show, Glasgow Jaguars delivered in style with a superb third place finish behind Blackheath and Bromley and Woodford Green and Essex ladies but ahead of Shaftesbury, Sale, Birchfield, Swansea, and Newham and Essex Beagles.

The throwers seemed to enjoy the conditions and Dawn Russell was in tremendous form, improving her own Scottish U20 record to 47.96 on the way to winning the A string event.

It was maximum points as Holly McArthur, making a welcome return to multi events, was not far from her PB with a win in the B string in 35.64. Andrew Peck was another thrower in PB form as he broke through the 50m barrier with 50.32 to finish in second.

Teddy Tchjoudja was another top points scorer with a third place finish in the A string shot with 13.95 and U20 Meghan Porterfield was the winner of the B string event.

There were more PBs in the Men’s Hammer with U20 duo Callum Hendry on his debut for the team and in his first competition with the Senior weight hammer, throwing 44.76 and Lewis Craigie recording a PB of 43.90.

Both athletes made the cut with Lewis third in the B string. Meghan also made the cut in the Discus, a fine achievement in her first year against top UK competition.

Photo album on Facebook by Gordon Innes

Photo by Gordon Innes

It was PBs all the way in the sprints with wind readings at times over 7 metres per second behind the runners.

Ethan Pottie took full advantage of the + 7.4 as he raced to a fifth place finish in the A race in 10.2 while Finlay Waugh was a fine second in the B event in 10.54 with a ‘modest’ wind of +3.2.

Finlay’s good form continued with another PB of 20.92 (+4.6) for a fourth place in the A event and for Struan Linton his first individual event for the team resulted in a 21.75 (+5.6) PB and a sixth place finish in the B race.

Joined by newcomer Ally Mitchell the 4×100 relay team clocked a swift 41.82 for a fine second place. It was a similar story for the women with Sarah Malone recording an 11.62 (+4.6), just short of her PB for second in the A 100m and there was a fine second for Freya Cowan in the B 100m in 12.28.

In a competitive 200m it was another marginal PB of 24.35(+3.11) for Sarah and a third place for World Masters medallist Stacey Downie in a season’s best time of 24.79 (+4.3) in the B race.

The 4×100 relay squad of Stacey, Sarah, Erin Campbell and Rachel Callan matched the men’s second place finish with a time of 47.02, putting them fourth on the all-time list.

The 400m runners had to cope with horrendous conditions on the back straight but Kathryn Christie continued to show a welcome return to form after injury, finishing strongly to record an outdoor PB of 56.08 in a second place finish in the A race and it was an excellent second place finish for Scott Hannaway in 49.50 in the B race on his debut for the team.

The women’s 4x400m relay team of Lorne Kerr, Emma Barclay, Kathryn and Emma Barclay finished a full three seconds ahead of the second-placed team to score maximum points.

In a thrilling finale, the men’s team of Bradley Francis, Scott Hannaway, Calum Mackenzie and Max Leslie had the team on their feet cheering as Max just failed to catch the Woodford Green runner and had to settle for second place.

Photo by Gordon Innes

It was high scoring from the women in the middle-distance events with Carolyn Cameron taking second place in the 3000 in 10.38.30 and Alicia Paton matching her in the B race with 11.04.06, strong running in challenging conditions.

Sarah Coutts ran well on her team debut with third in the 800m A race in 2.13.85 and a win in the B 1500 in 4.41.69 just behind teammate Margot Wyrwoll, who marked her debut in the team with a fine run of 4.41.19 for fourth in the A race.

Lauren Stoddart had a very encouraging run in the 2000m Steeplechase and she finished strongly in second in 7.13.89.

It was more high scoring in the hurdles as Erin Campbell recorded a swift 13.80 to finish second in the A race and Holly McArthur was delighted with her second place finish in the B race with a legal 14.37.

In the 400m hurdles Bradley Francis ran strongly to finish third in the A race in 56.26 and it was a welcome return to the team for Connor Henderson, a winner of the B race in 55.44.

Teddy Tchoudja and Caroly Harvey in throws and jumps action (photo by Gordon Innes)

The jumpers found the strong winds tricky but coped well with the conditions with Hannah Wallace finishing third in the A Long Jump with 5.65, backed up by Anna Forbes, who finished second in the B event in 5.51.

Robyn Taylor and Carolyn Harvey acquitted themselves very well in their debut for the team with both making the cut and Robyn finishing fourth in the A event with 11.78 and Carolyn’s 11.74 earning her second place in the B event.

Andrew McFarlane marked his team debut in the pole vault with a gutsy 4.41 in the swirling wind for second in the B event but for the second match in a row the women’s vault fell victim to the weather and did not get beyond the warm-up stage (thus leaving Eve MacCallum still awaiting her debut).

As always Euan Urquhart had a busy day scoring points in the Shot, Javelin and Long Jump with his 6.85M leap coming close to his best.

Every athlete made a valuable contribution to the final team score and position and again huge thanks to the Officials, who travelled and gained maximum points for the team.

The team are currently lying in sixth place in the 16-team league and with a home match in Scotstoun on Saturday 5 August, hopes are high that they can move further up the rankings.

As always the team is indebted to their sponsors Glasgow Life and Joma, whose support is enabling athletes to experience high level UK competition as they develop in the sport.