Saturday 12th February 2022 saw not one, not two, not three but FOUR records broken as students from across the country battled it out to be crowned Scottish Student Champions.
Although it was a dreich day in Glasgow, the Emirates Arena was glowing as students provided shining performances across Track and Field.

The day began with a brilliant battle for Women’s 60m Gold between Alyson Bell (University of Edinburgh) and Katie Purves (University of the West of Scotland). Gold went to Katie with a 7.61s run taking her into the top 5 ranked Women in Scotland for that event. Katie (pictured right) then went on to break her own SSA Indoor 60mH record from 2019 in a storming time of 8.40s, taking her to 2nd ranked Woman in Scotland!
The morning’s Field events also drew attention with three Women’s Pole vaulters clearing the same height (2.90m) and medal being decided on countback. Gold was taken by Morgan MacDougall of Glasgow Caledonian University, but credit is due to Rosie Brown (Strathclyde) and Grace Brennan (University of Aberdeen) who took silver and bronze respectively.
On the circular track, another SSA record taken on the day was won by Krystof Hornyik (University of St Andrews, pictured) who broke the previously 7-year standing SUCA Men’s 1500m record from Christopher Watson (formerly University of Strathclyde) by 4.74 seconds in 3:53.28. Brilliant performance from the Hungarian runner who held off Jamie MacKinnon from University of Strathclyde to silver and Nikolai Gajic (University of Glasgow) to bronze.

It was a whopping throw of 13.29m in the Women’s Shot Putt that saw University of Strathclyde’s Teddy Tchoudja (middle) take gold and break her previous SSA Indoor record, set just a few months earlier, by 63cm. This put Teddy over 2m ahead of silver (Karolina Wamsler, University of Edinburgh), with bronze won by Alice Baxendale, also University of Edinburgh.
Back on the Track, the Men’s 3000m was won in a very convincing fashion by Noah Lambert (University of St Andrews, pictured) who broke Cameron Smith’s 2020 record (8:33.32) with a brilliant run of 8:25.24. Jimena Andrade (University of the West of Scotland) took the gold in the Women’s event with 11:04.07.

In the Women’s Long Jump, we had the highly unusual situation of 3 athletes recording exactly the same distance (5.31) so silver and bronze were awarded based on the next best jumps of each athlete. Gold medallist, Anna Cameron (University of Strathclyde) was joined on the podium by fellow teammate Hannah Wallace who took bronze. Silver went to Jane Davidson of University of Aberdeen with the next best jump of 5.29m. The Men’s Long Jump was won by Euan Urquhart (University of Glasgow) putting 1m between himself and second place with a great jump of 6.94m.
The relay events always seal the event off on a high as students cheer themselves hoarse as they will their teammates around the track. University of Strathclyde’s Women’s 4x200m relay was just .25 of a second off of the overall record for the event, storming to victory! Meanwhile, it was just .17 seconds between Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities in the Women’s 4x400m relay in a nail biter of a finish – University of Glasgow just pipping Edinburgh to the line. It was a University of Glasgow Double in the Men’s relays, with their teams taking Gold in the 4x200m and 4x400m with track to spare between the runners up.
We saw brilliant performances in all events with many students reaping the rewards of continued training despite the recent restrictions, demonstrated in 33 PBs set and 56 SBs. Well done to all involved – full results found HERE.
Congratulations also to the University of Glasgow who won the Iain Cosgrove Trophy for Best Overall Institution! Full results for this trophy can be found HERE.
Katie Purves (UWS) was awarded the Ian Tatton Trophy for Best Performance by an Individual Athlete, for her double Gold detailed earlier.
A special thank you to all those who gave up their time to help make the event happen: Scottish Athletics Staff, Scottish Athletics Officials, Scottish Student Athletics Development Group and the student volunteers on the day. The event couldn’t have run without you. Big thanks to Bobby Gavin (credited for these photos) and William Cosh for taking photos on the day. Full albums can be found on Facebook HERE.
Thank you also to all clubs for continuing to support the event! See you all again soon at the Outdoor Championships in April.
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