Six weeks ago, the UK’s combined events athletes converged on Sheffield for the English Athletics Championships. This weekend, Scotland returns the favour as home athletes and guests alike head to Glasgow for the Scottish Championships, which are also serving as the UK championships.
While frustrating that combined events athletes continue to be excluded from the main UK championships and receive very little promotion when they do compete, the silver lining is how well Scottish Athletics – and its counterpart, England Athletics – host and champion the competition in the absence of profile at national level.
The atmosphere in the Emirates Arena in Glasgow this weekend has been bustling and busy, as multiple age groups come together to celebrate combined events over two days.
SAMMY BALL MAKES HIS ENTRANCE
At senior level, Saturday focused on the men’s indoor heptathlon, where we saw for the first time this year one of Britain’s new 8000-point decathletes, Sammy Ball. Sammy had been due to start in Sheffield, and then due to start in Tallinn at the start of February, but a combination of rib injury and flu — coughing and sneezing does not a healed rib make – delayed the start of his competition season.
Ball has had little time to prepare for the championships but comes to the event a substantially more mature athlete than in previous years. He looks like an 8000-point decathlete and carries himself like a world-class athlete. After a few years with experience at European age group championships and debuts at Decastar and Götzis, he looks easy and relaxed in domestic competition.
Whether in Glasgow or Sheffield, there is often a fast Scot at the front of the field and Adam Hoole powered easily to the fastest time in the 60m, with 7.01s. Another Scot, Reuben Nairne, was next with 7.04s. Ball ran 7.08s, then came another two Scots, each of them running lifetime bests; Alister Mackay 7.15s and Callum Newby 7.16s. Conrad Winter, who was second at the English championships behind Lewis Church, also ran a PB, 7.23s.
LONG JUMP: NEWBY LEADS THE WAY
The track in the Emirates Arena really seemed to agree with the athletes, and the slew of PBs in the 60m continued into the long jump.
Callum Newby set his second lifetime best of the weekend with the longest jump of the competition, 7.34m. That was in spite of a little caution applied to his hamstring, in both sprint and jump. Scottish athletes have big priorities this year, with Glasgow hosting the Commonwealth Games in the summer and Scottish decathlon vests at stake.
The second event is another strong one for Hoole, and he jumped a solid 7.33m. After such little preparation, 7.23m was a decent mark for Sammy Ball, and Will Reid of England was the fourth over seven metres with 7.08m.
Just the other side of the seven-metre mark, Alister Mackay had his second PB of the day, equalling his best mark of 6.93m. Further down the field, Evan Campbell from Jersey and England’s Sulaiman Ouiles also improved their long jumps bests to 6.76m and 6.67m respectively. They would come into play as the day progressed.
After two events, Hoole continued to lead, while Ball moved up from third to second, 49 points behind. Newby moved from fifth to third, just one point behind Ball and 95 points ahead of Mackay in fourth.
SHOT PUT: BALL TAKES CONTROL
Any world-class decathlete needs to have a shot mark well above 14m and, in the third event, Sammy Ball took control of the competition with 14.83m. Although several others in the field are capable of good throws, he was the only one over 14m, and with that performance he started to consolidate his lead.
Behind him, Evan Campbell had a consistent series of 13.87m, 13.78m and 13.88m.
Callum Newby had his third PB of the day with 13.58m, and Alister Mackay was just behind with 13.33m. Hoole threw 13.16m. Sulaiman Ouiles had his first ever 12m throw with a PB of 12.05m
As the event concluded, Sammy Ball had turned the previous 49-point deficit to Adam Hoole into a 53-point advantage. In third Newby closed his gap to Hoole from 50 points to just 24 points.
Alister Mackay remained in fourth, where he had been after the first, second and now third event, 111 points behind Newby.
Conrad Winter continued his climb from seventh after the 60m, sixth after long jump and now to fifth, after a throw of 12.64m; and Campbell similarly continued his improvement from eleventh to eighth to sixth after three events.
HIGH JUMP: BALL STRETCHES CLEAR
The final event of the day played to another one of Ball’s strengths in domestic competition where, at his best, he can jump over 2.00m. With minimal preparation given his injury and illness, his best clearance of 1.97m was a solid result.
Sulaiman Ouiles and Evan Campbell are also both good 2-metre-plus jumpers, and they both cleared 1.94m. Newby topped out at 1.91m, Conrad Winter and Alister Mackay both jumped 1.88m, a 1cm PB for Mackay.
At the end of the first day, Ball is beginning to stretch clear, over 130 points ahead of Newby, who in turn is 80 points ahead of Hoole. Alister Mackay is just over 50 points behind – fourth in the standings after every event so far – making it three Scots and an Englishman in the top four.
LOOKING AHEAD TO DAY TWO
Looking ahead to the second day, Hoole will come out fighting with fast hurdles but is vulnerable to the stronger vaulters and faster 1k runners. However, Callum Newby is an excellent vaulter, with 5.15m to his credit, and has momentum from his day one improvements. Andrew Murphy’s Scottish indoor record of 5662 points should be a credible target for their sights; if not today, certainly in future.
For now, Ball is 71 points ahead of his personal best series (5707) scored in Sheffield in 2025.
1. Sammy Ball 3278
2. Callum Newby 3148
3. Adam Hoole 3068
4. Alister Mackay 3010
5. Evan Campbell 2946
6. Conrad Winter 2935
7. Sulaiman Ouiles 2833
8. Will Reid 2807
9. Tom Chandler 2656
10. Zak Fearn 2608
By Gabby Pieraccini
