Masterful! Scottish athletes smash it again at European Masters Indoors

Saturday 4th April 2026

Jennifer Beattie reports from Poland

Following hard on the heels of the World Indoors in Torun, over 4000 Masters athletes from around Europe and beyond descended on the Kujawsko-Pomoroska Arena for six days of championship action.

Athletes in age groups from V35 upwards competed across all indoor track and field events as well as long throws, road races and XC.

A total of 29 Scots from both home clubs and ‘ex-pats’ made up part of the wider GB and NI squad, and it is safe to say that these championships were super successful with a total of 24 medals coming home with the Scots as well as a number of records being broken along the way.

It is brilliant to see Scottish Masters athletes being so successful at international events, age is just a number and not a limitation as these guys and girls have most definitely proved this week.

Here’s our short summary (following day-by-day reporting across our Facebook page).

Gold Medals

Chris Upson (Cambuslang) – M65 3000m, 5k road race, individual 8k XC & team 8k XC; Stacey Downey (Edinburgh) – W35 200m, W35 4×200 relay, V35 mixed 4×200 relay; Jim Smith (Motherwell) M80 4×200 relay; Allan Leiper – M65 Shot; Darren Scott – M55 200m.

Silver Medals

Claire Cameron (VPCoG) – W65 discus; Jim Tole (Metro Aberdeen) – M50 5k road race; Jim Smith (Motherwell) M80 long jump; Stacey Downie (Edinburgh) W35 60m; Dougie Graham (Edinburgh) M45 pole vault.

Angela Kelly (Giffnock North) W65 4×200 relay; Ron Hunter (SVHC) M60 4×200 relay; Jacqueline Etherington (Cambuslang) W45 8k XC team; Laura Haggarty (Kilmarnock) W40 1500m.

Bronze Medals

Grant Baillie (East Kilbride) – M45 3000m; Darren Scott – V55 200m; Jacqueline Etherington (Cambuslang) W45 8k XC individual; John Thomson (Fife) M65 1500m; Andrew Brown (Lasswade) M45 1500m.

Records*

Stacey Downie (Edinburgh) – W35 Scottish records in 60m and 200m, W35 4×200 relay British record, and V35 4×200 mixed relay World record.

Allan Leiper – M65 indoor shot British record. Although he achieved an even bigger throw earlier in the year at Lee Valley this has yet to be ratified, but he also broke the old mark this week in Torun (13.77m).

*Records are subject to ratification by the appropriate governing bodies*

Huge thank you from scottishathletics to Jennifer four outstanding reporting this past week. We really appreciate the effort and commitment to try and capture so many performances.