Scottish Athletics Hire New CEO, High School Updates, Collegiate Updates, Pro Updates, & Athlete Spotlight
Welcome back to your favorite weekly recap of the running world! We will be covering all the stories from the running community across the world.
We are getting to the part of the season where there are not many news stories and instead we get to cover results! But it does not mean there was no news this week.
Scottish Athletics hired their new CEO. Read on to find out who it is and what he has planned for them.
Fast times continue to be dropped in high school with some new #1 times for both the US and the world!
The same goes for the NCAA as more and more schools return to competitions.
In the pro circuit, more events are being held in limited capacity across the world as athletes prepare for indoor championship meets that have not been cancelled.
We will wrap it up with our athlete spotlight. Read until the end to find out more about an athlete who fell in love with running again during the quarantine.
Let’s Go!
Colin Hutchison starts as Scottish Athletics CEO
Colin Hutchison was given the green light to be the new CEO of Scottish Athletics this week after former CEO, Mark Munro, left to join UK Athletics. Hutchison has been with Scottish Athletics since 2017 and has proven to keep the priorities set by the organization as his main focus.
Moving forward, Hutchison said that Scottish Athletics has been able to maintain it’s stability to make sure to come back even stronger than before. “The success of athletics in Scotland over the past decade has been driven by placing clubs and people at the heart of everything we do”, Hutchison stated.
Scotland will look to continue on their success from 2019 when they sent 12 athletes to Doha on Great Britain’s 72-person roster.
New US #1 and Elite World Times from US High Schoolers
There were major track meets held in Alabama, Louisiana, and Virginia this past week with a state championship, a last chance qualifier, and a major invite. This brought in the best talent from across the country.
At the East Coast Invite in Virginia Beach, Jaylen Slade was the story of the weekend as he becomes the first boy to run under 21 seconds in the 200m this season. His time of 20.97 is the US #1. Tamari Davis was right up there with Slade as she ran a 7.18 in the 60m for a World Top 10 time of her own. Madison Whyte was able to run 23.80 for a US #2 time in the 200m. Hannah Douglas from IMG was also able to find a US Top 5 time with a 24.03 time run in the prelims at the same event. The New England Track Club was able to put together a 3:21.99 4x400m for the US #2 time in the event behind IMG Elite.
At the Alabama Indoor State Championship, Crawford West was able to win both the 1600m and 3200m. Jekovan Rhetta was able to shave 0.01 seconds off of his 60m time to run a 6.72, tying him for the US #2 time. Ethan Strand was able to shave a bit more time off his US #1 time in the 800m to run a 1:51.08, improving his lead even more.
There were no new US #1 times from the LSU High School Last Chance Qualifier unfortunately.
Athing Mu Continues to Dominate the NCAA
In the NCAA, there are actually cross country results to report as well. Nico Young of NAU had his collegiate debut race, finished 2nd in an 8000m race in a time of 22:52.70. Connor Mantz was able to win the race in a time of 22:50.40.
On the track, in the NCAA DI, Athing Mu was the headline yet again this weekend after running a 50.52 400m time. This time leads the country by over a second and the world by 0.3 seconds. Abby Steiner of Kentucky also earned herself a comfortable #1 time with her 200m race of 22.69. This time is the World #2 time as well. On the men’s side, Eric Hamer ran a new #1 time in the 5000m after being converted for both altitude and for track size. His original time was 14:16, good enough for the NCAA #2, but converted it puts him at 13:36 as the clear front runner. While none of the times were new NCAA #1 times, Virginia Tech should be honored as they sent five of their men under 4 minutes in the mile this past weekend.
In the NCAA DII, Northwest Missouri put together a very strong 4x400m relay to run a time of 3:10, three seconds faster than the #2 time. On the women’s side, Nicole Sreenan is in the news again after running 7.41 to tie her personal best from 2020 for a new #1 time in NCAA DII. Grand Valley State also put together a solid 4x400m team to run 3:44 to comfortably hold the #1 spot by a few seconds.
In the NCAA DIII, Taylor Rooney ran a 7.87 60m hurdles time to sit him very comfortably in 1st place across DIII. On the women’s side, Kassie Rosenbum becomes the first DIII women this season to run under 5 minutes in the mile with her time of 4:59.60, converted to 4:56.67 due to track size.
There were no notable times from the NAIA, NJCAA, or NCCAA. We will update you when the fast times start to reach these divisions as well.
Pro Updates
On the men’s side, Selemon Barega won a very tight race in the indoor 1500m for a new World #1 time of 3:34.62. This time edged out Bethwell Birgen by 0.05 seconds.
On the women’s side, Femke Bol ran an amazing 400m time in 50.81, but her time only stood for a few hours as the World #1 before Athing Mu ran her time.
These were the only new World #1 performances this past week in the running events. We will keep you updated as more and more athletes continue to race.
Athlete Spotlight
This week, we will spotlight Bella Mackie. Mackie was never an elite runner, and instead uses running as a hobby. At the age of 14, she joined an athletic club to focus on middle distance. After some time, she showed some improvement and her coach recommended that she begin competing. Mackie states that this is around the time that her anxiety with running began. After doctors could not find out why she was having these feelings, she ended up walking away from the sport.
Years later, she is back running again, and with a much healthier approach. She stated that running culture is not particularly helpful at time with apps like Strava that focus on running progress. While this is good for some runners, amateur runners that do it for the enjoyment of the sport may find it unhelpful and more competitive than anything else.
She is the author of the book Jog On that you can find here. You can read the full article here.