Jake wins in Rabat as Jemma bounces back, too, plus Jumps and Throws GP

Monday 6th June 2022

Jake and Jemma in action at the Olympics (photos by Sam Mellish and Garry Bowden)

Rabat Diamond League coverage on BBC Sport

There’s a huge summer ahead for elite Scots athletes with the trio of major championships – the Worlds in Eugene, the Commonwealths in Birmingham and the Europeans in Munich – now starting to loom large.

So it was brilliant to see two of our top Scots impress over the weekend as Jake Wightman and Jemma Reekie returned to fine form.

Jake savoured an excellent win in the Men’s 1500m at the Diamond League meeting in Rabat in Morocco.

The 2018 Commonwealth and European medallist clocked 3:32.62 for the victory as he surged clear in the latter stages of a race that was marred by a somewhat faulty start. Fellow Brit Jake Heyward took second place.

Jake has already made it clear he has aspirations for all three major championships this summer and a performance described by one respected observer as the best win of his career will certainly lift confidence.

In a similar way, Jemma clocked a Season’s Best run of 1:58.44 for second place in Chorzow to make a strong return to form.

After a tough outing in Eugene some nine days ago, this was Jemma’s best performance since having glandular fever earlier in the year. Jemma’s time was inside the qualifying standards for the World Champs, European Champs and Commonwealth Games.

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Results details on Event section page

The third of our Jumps and Throws GP meets took place in Dundee on Sunday.

We say a big thank you to all our competitors, with around 100 athletes entered, and as always to our scottishathletics Officials for making events happen.

Among the throwers in action in Dundee were young duo Meghan Porterfield and Paige Stevens, who backed up their fine performances in the shot in Bedford last Thursday. Paige reached 15.02m this time and Meghan 14.78m.

Other notable performers included Callum Hendry of VP-Glasgow who stepped up to the U20 6kg hammer to throw 52.09m and go straight to the top of the Scottish U20 hammer rankings (and seventh in the UK).

Again in the hammer, Angela McAuslan-Kelly of Aberdeen AAC threw a big PB in the U17 age group to move to second in the UK rankings.

In the long jump, Giffnock North’s Alessandro Schenini had a best leap of 7.33m with T20 athlete Steven Stone of Falkirk Vics at 6.52m.

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There were strong performances by two young Scots at the British Milers Club meeting at Milton Keynes on Saturday.

Corey Campbell of Team East Lothian has already hit the marks for 1500m and 3000m for the Euro U18 Champs in Israel. But he did so again with an excellent 8:19.21 run.

Oliver Patton similarly went inside the GB and NI standards for the Euro U18 Champs in the 2000m steeplechase. The Kilbarchan AAC athlete clocked 5:52.78.

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In Manchester on Friday evening, Nick Percy took third in the discus competition at the Bryggen Sports meeting. Nick threw 62.91 to once again post a Commonwealth qualifying standard.

Ben Greenwood was third in his 800m race in 1:49.74.

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Tags: Ben Greenwood, Corey Campbell, Diamond League, Jake Wightman, Jemma Reekie, Jumps and Throws GP, Nick Percy, Oliver Patton