Megan runs to new 10k European U23 mark and Alice on form, too

Monday 15th January 2024

Megan Keith ended last year as the Women’s U23 gold medallist at the Euro Cross in Belgium.

And Megan made a superb start to 2024 with a big PB performance at the Valencia 10k in Spain on Sunday morning – to land a European Record at U23.

The Inverness Harriers/Edinburgh Uni Hare and Hounds athlete finished 18^th in a world class field and clocked a stunning 31:20 (chip).

European Athletics take the gun time of 31:22 and that puts Megan as the new U23 Record holder for 10k on the road. The previous mark was 31:23 set by German athlete Alina Reh set in 2018.

Congratulations to Megan and coach Ross Cairns on another highly significant performance in an all-time context.

All-time European U23 rankings for 10k road – with Megan now at the very top

The Valencia run also takes Megan to seventh in the British all-time list for the distance and is the third fastest 10k on the road by a Scottish woman – only Eilish and Liz McColgan have run faster.

It was a good day, too, for Alice Goodall. Alice clocked a PB with a run of 32:04 (chip time) in Valencia. That is seventh best by a Scot.

Well done to both athletes and their coaches and clubs on two performances which really bode well for the year ahead in different disciplines.

*Steph Twell was back in half marathon action in Houston. Steph posted a solid 72.00 (with her PB at 68:55 from 2020).

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Photo via Twitter

Over in America, Tom Graham-Marr has made an impressive start to his time studying at Boise.

Tom was competing over 3000m indoors and went very close to the eight minute barrier with a big PB run of 8:01.98.

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In the field, there were some good performances by Scots at various locations.

Pole vaulters were to the fore as Sara Barbour cleared a PB of 3.81m in Loughborough to move the Kilmarnock Harriers athlete to ninth equal on Scottish all-time list indoors.

In Glasgow the previous day at the GAA meet at Tollcross, Sara’s young training partner, Charis Crawford of Springburn Harriers, cleared 3.25m for a strong U17 performance.

In the United States, there was another event win for Angela McAuslan-Kelly.

Allie Routledge was second at the Potts Invitational with a jump of 1.72m and CE athlete, Alix Still, was in action in Nashville at the Commodore Challenge with performances which included 39.89 300m, 1.66 HJ, 11.03 SP).

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Tags: Alice Goodall, Megan Keith, Steph Twell, Tom Graham-Marr, Valencia