While Andy Murray and Gordon Reid were recording historic victories at Wimbledon, their fellow Scots were in action across a packed weekend of sport:
Athletics: Scottish athletes celebrated a superb showing at the European Championships led by medal winning performances from Eilidh Doyle and Steph Twell. Concentrating solely on the 4x400m relay, Eilidh, along with GB team mates Emily Diamond, Anyika Onuora and Seren Bundy-Davies, struck gold in a world leading time of 3.25.05. Her stunning 50.92 second split time bodes well for her Olympic chances over the 400m hurdles.
Steph Twell produced a fantastic finish to claim bronze in the 5000m, almost snatching silver on the line, to announce her arrival back to her best form after several years of injury. Fellow Scots Laura Whittle and Eilish McColgan were not far behind, both finishing in the top six. With Eilish and Steph already assured of a place in Rio, Laura’s 5th place will have done no harm to her chances of claiming the remaining Olympic berth.
There were also top ten finishes for Jake Wightman (1500m, 7th), Callum Hawkins (Half Marathon, 9th) and Chris Bennett (Hammer, 10th), while Shelby Watson took a bronze medal in the IPC Invitational T34 100m.
Across a fantastic weekend for Scottish athletes, Stef Reid added 31cm to her long jump best to claim the T44 world record with a leap of 5.78m. With bronze at the 2008 Paralympics and silver at London 2012, she is coming into form at just the right time for Rio. Nick Percy continued his incredible run of form, going out to 61.78m in the discus for his fourth Scottish record of 2016.
Rugby 7s: Scotland Women 7s put in a sterling performance at the Hungarian leg of the Rugby Europe Sevens Trophy to claim overall bronze. Following a second place finish in June in Prague, Scotland once again came through their group undefeated with wins over Norway, Czech Republic and Romania. A victory over the hosts in the quarter finals, followed by losses to Poland and Germany, gave the team a top four finish and secured the overall bronze.
Several of Scotland’s male players were in action for GB Royals and GB Lions at the Exeter Sevens, staking their claim for place on Team GB at Rio 2016. The Royals, including Jamie Farndale, captain of the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games side, and Glasgow 2014 player, Scott Riddell, lifted the Cup with an impressive 33-17 win over France. Four Scots; Mark Bennett, Lee Jones, Gavin Lowe and Mark Robertson, put in a great performance for GB Lions who won the Plate after a narrow loss to Russia in the quarter-finals. The 12 players who will play for Team GB at the Rio 2016 Olympics will be announced on 19 July.
Triathlon: Commonwealth Games competitor Natalie Milne celebrated her recent selection for the World Universities Championships with a resounding victory in the Scottish National Sprint Championships at Monikie Country Park. George Goodwin took the win in the senior men’s event. Natalie will be joined at the World Universities by fellow Glasgow 2014 athlete Grant Sheldon and emerging talent Douglas Roberts.