Record breaker! Stephen leaps to victory with stunning 8.15m jump and Melanie wins wheelchair gold, too

Saturday 20th June 2026

All photos by Getty Images for British Athletics

Stephen Mackenzie leapt to a Scottish Record – and UK Champs gold – with an amazing last round performance in Birmingham.

The jumper from Ullapool reached 8.15m for a big PB, a new National mark and landed a European Champs qaulifying standard as well.

Darren Ritchie‘s erstwhile mark had been at 8.01m (from 2004) although Stephen threatened that recently with 8.01m windy at a competition in Slovakia.

Stephen’s gold came during a late medal rush for the Scots at the Alexander Stadium.

*Melanie Woods took the gold in the Women’s Wheelchair 400m with 55.52. There was bronze in that race for Joanna Robertson at 66.59 seconds.

*Eloise Walker won bronze in the Women’s 5000m with a solid run from the Edinburgh AC athlete.

*Sarah Tait took a hard-earned bronze in the Women’s 3000m steeplechase as she returned after a long injury absence.

With Nick Percy a silver medallist in the Men’s discus earlier, and Stephen’s gold, that made it six medals on day one.

Adding to the sense of achievement was another Scottish U20 Record from sprinter Sophie Thomas.

The Dunfermline athlete clocked 11.44 in the semis to break her recent Record (of 11.49) at U20 level. She was second place in that race as Dina Asher-Smith won.

Sophie then bettered that again with a terrific 11.32 run for sixth in the final as the young Scot shared a track with Asher-Smith and Amy Hunt. The Scottish National Record is held at 11.30 (by Alisha Rees).

‘I have been gearing up for the Scottish Record for a long while,’ said Stephen.

‘I couldn’t really hit it in the early rounds; I was way behind the board. I then saw Archie get over 8 metres and I’m just glad I could respond and get the lead back in that last round.

‘I have been close (to the record) for the last few competitions, so I just needed someone to push me over the line and Archie did that today. The support over on that side of the track was brilliant and really spurred us all on to perform at our best.’

Melanie was pleased with her win, too, with the wheelchair racer among our selected Para athletes for Glasgow 2026.

‘I gave it all in effort today,’ she said. ‘It’s never the best track for us as wheelchair racers, so you’ve got to do what you can, knowing it is not going to be the fastest time.

‘I started the season with PBs in every event, so that has given me great confidence going ahead through the summer. 400m is part of every race for me, so nailing that first 400m is so important across all the disciplines.

‘So thsi win simply continues my focus on that event to get things are strong as possible.’

Late in the programme, the 1500m heats served up solid Scottish performances.

Four Scots progressed to the Women’s final in that event – Laura Muir, Sarah Calvert, Erin Wallace and Beth Ansell.

And three Scots progressed to the Men’s 1500m final as Cameron Boyek and Neil Gourley made it from the first race and then Garscube Harriers youngster James Alexander came up with a brilliant second place to join them in the Sunday final.

Jake Wightman was another race winner in his 800m heat.

‘I’m unsure if I am going for the 800m or 1500m (at the Europeans), so I want to give myself the option by running well in the 800m,’ said Jake.

‘I just had to get this day out of the way first; you cannot start thinking about the final too early.’

Mhairi Patience of Edinburgh AC made the Women’s 400m Hurdles final with SB run of 59.53 and, similarly, Hannah Cameron progressed in the Women’s 800m with run of 2:04.33 from the Aberdeen AAC athlete.

Two Scots progressed in the Women’s 400m and made the final (despite a tough qualification process).

Nicole Yeargin won her race in 51.59 to go through in the single automatic slot. Rebecca Grieve, second to Amber Anning, posted 52.71 and that was enough to also go through.

‘I just wanted to get out hard and set the race up because when you come off the bend you never know what’s going to happen,’ said Nicole.

‘I kept working hard to the finish and I was able to take the win. I didn’t know until we came out onto the track that it was only the winner of the heat that will make it through the final.’

Nick Percy landed the first Scottish medal of the weekend with silver in the Men’s discus.

Nick threw out to 60.22 on the day but had to defer to a new Championship Record from Lawrence Okoye at 68.81m.

Also in the field, there was a fine performance from Silver Nwabuzor in the Women’s Triple Jump. Silver finished fourth in a strong comp and came up with a PB of 12.93m in the Alexander Stadium.

‘I am delighted with that as my PB before today was 12.74m – so one day I am going to get over that 13m mark,’ she said.

‘I believe it takes me into the top five in the Scottish all-time list so a big thank you to my coach, David Watson, for his support and hard work.’