Two medals were won by Team Scotland on the third evening of athletics at Scotstoun, with Melanie Woods sealing the second gold on the track, and Stephen Mackenzie winning a brilliant bronze in the long jump.
Melanie Woods produced the performance of her life to win her first major gold medal in the women’s T54 1500m. Woods avoided drama as four athletes crashed on the opening lap, getting ahead early and laying down a marker to the rest of the field. She had company in Canada’s Nandini Sharma, but she pulled away in the last 600m and accelerated to Commonwealth gold in a Games record of 3:33.39.
She said: “I think to do that here, at home, is a very special moment. It felt different coming into this Games. Knowing that I was ranked highest and I was fastest this year definitely came with a different type of pressure, especially knowing that my friends and family were out there. I’m really glad I was able to hold my nerve and come out and follow the race plan that I had ahead of me. I’m glad that it paid off and I won.
“I heard a bit of a crash behind me, I looked up at the screen and saw what had happened. Unfortunate for the girls who got mixed up in that. My plan was to get out hard and be at the front so that I wouldn’t get caught up, because these things can happen. Luckily, I wasn’t part of that today but I feel bad for the girls that were.
“I’m a hugely, hugely different athlete from when I competed at Birmingham 2022. I’ve got four years of experience and two or three championships under my belt. Championship racing is so different to doing time trials on the track and trying to get better each time. I think that experience has given me confidence and given me the progress that has gotten me here today and the confidence to come out and lead a 1500m.”
There was a super bronze for Stephen Mackenzie who lived up to his good recent form to claim a spot on the podium at his first Commonwealth Games. He started confidently with an 8.08m, putting him on the same distance as Tajay Gayle of Jamaica at the top of the standings after round one. The mark was just seven centimetres off his recent Scottish record, so it settled any early competition nerves.
Shreeshanker of India went out to 8.09m in round two to take the lead and it took until round four for Gayle to take top spot with a jump of 8.15m. It looked like Mackenzie had exceeded that mark in round five, but he went over the board by a fine margin for a foul. With a group of family and friends cheering wildly in the stands next to the long jump pit, Mackenzie finished with a mark of 8.06m, another high quality jump which confirmed the bronze medal, the first ever Scottish medal in the horizontal jumps at a Commonwealth Games.
Delighted with his debut in front of a home crowd, he said: “It’s just unreal, you can’t describe it. I’ve maybe jumped here once before when I was younger, I’m not familiar with it [the venue] but I am familiar with the weather conditions here in Scotland.
“I just wanted to make the final. Monday didn’t go as planned, I struggled to get through the rounds, but I knew once I stepped on the start line today for the final that I had to prove myself and maybe fix some of the mistakes I made on Monday. I was really determined to go out there and jump at this level.
“The support is unreal. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime feeling and you’ll never get the same crowd and response again.”
The women’s 3000m Steeplechase final got off to a fast start with the field spread out from lap one, and with the relentless pace, Sarah Tait found the going tough, finishing tenth in 9:47.4.
After two tough semi-finals, Erin Wallace and Jemma Reekie bowed out of the women’s 800m after finishing sixth (2:00.76) and seventh (2:03.46) and respectively, with only the top three in each heat going through automatically, and the next two fastest qualifiers.
The Men’s Mile heats were one of the starring events on the third morning of the athletics programme as world record holder Josh Kerr and 2022 world 1500m champion Jake Wightman both progressed to Saturday’s final.
Kerr went in heat one and controlled the front of the race to stay out of trouble. In his first race since his heroics in London 11 days ago, Kerr was cool, calm and collected, lapping up the home crowd support as he came into the finishing straight to comfortably win his heat in a time of 3:58.57.
Afterwards, he said: “It was great out there, now they’ve re-laid the track it is fast, so I had a good time out there. The pace was fine. It was a bit slow out of the gate, and I could hear everyone chopping and changing. I put myself out at the front, not to overdo it, but to put a bit of space between me and them. The splits are a bit hard to keep a track of. I know my world record splits but that is about it. I felt solid, but it was a bit slower than my last race.
“I am here to show up and get a medal for Scotland. Hopefully we can get some more on the podium. The Scottish guys are looking great, I mean Jake has just run an awesome 1km. I am just happy to be amongst these guys and go for the win.”
Wightman joined his compatriot in the final after a solid performance to finish narrowly behind young Australian talent Cameron Myers, clocking 3:54.05 for second in his heat.
He said, “I have never run here with this type of crowd. I probably haven’t been here for 15 years, but it was class. I was looking forward to this from the start. You always get a big roar from the crowd. It’s a big deal to come here and try to win for Scotland in front of a home crowd.
“It’s a tough field, but you want to be racing them all at their best. Josh is the world record holder; Cam Meyers is in great form. It is my job to try and shake them up. If I go out and race how I know I can, then hopefully I will have a chance.”
Neil Gourley also went in heat two, but with only the top six automatically qualifying, a ninth-place finish in 4:01.45 was not enough to see him through to the final.
There was Scottish success in the Women’s 200m heats as Alyson Bell progressed to the semi-finals after running a time of 23.38 to go through as the ninth fastest overall.
Returning for day two of the Heptathlon, Allie Routledge jumped a best of 5.46m (688 points) in the long jump, before throwing 38.37m (636 points) in the javelin to sit in 14th after six events, with just the 800m to come during the evening session.
Despite competing in the morning session, she sadly had to withdraw before the 800m due to illness.
Looking ahead to Thursday, the evening session contains only one final with Scottish representation, and it will be a blockbuster with Megan Keith, Laura Muir, and Eloise Walker all in action on the track.
Keith returns to the track after competing in the 10,000m on night one, while Muir -1500m champion in Birmingham 2022 – competes for the first time, as does Walker who makes her second appearance at a Games.
Alyson Bell and Nicole Yeargin will be targeting spots in finals in the women’s 200m and 400m respectively. Bell races in the semi-finals during the evening session, while Yeargin rounds off the Scottish contingent in the morning programme.
Sarah Calvert, Jemma Reekie and Erin Wallace are in action in the women’s mile heats during the morning, while the Decathlon gets underway with Joel McFarlane and Callum Newby starting the first of five events of the day with the 100m.
