Scotland’s 4x100m team produced a record-breaking Diamond League display – with three of the relay quartet hailing from the north.
Rebecca Matheson, Alisha Rees, and Taylah Spence contributed to a combined time of 44.75sec – the Commonwealth Games qualifying standard and a Scottish record – at the newly-refurbished Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.
It was made all more impressive by the fact it was the relay squad’s first time competing together and the final runner, Taylah Spence, was making her debut in a Scotland vest.
Despite the strong performance, it was a display which suggested an even faster time is possible for the Scottish team, with changeovers two and three betraying the quartet’s inexperience of working together in a relay.
Nonetheless, the showing gave the team – which also featured Corstophine’s Sarah Malone – a taste of success on the international stage at a competition which featured sprinters of a world-class calibre.
Spence has Scotland debut to remember in Diamond League display
Orkney’s Spence anchored the relay team to their fourth-place finish.
The 23-year-old, who works full-time as a midwife at the Balfour Hospital in Kirkwall, said the experience would stand her in good stead.
Spence’s primary goal for the season had been to run for Scotland, so the Diamond League selection and then performance, was an early boost for the season.
She said: “Our plan was to try (and gain selection for) the Loughborough International, because we thought a relay spot there would be my best hope.
“The Scotland squad for Loughborough was announced, and I wasn’t initially in it, so I was so disappointed.”
But there was to be a twist in the tale for Spence, who was subsequently pulled into the squad for the Loughborough International – and told told she would also be in the team for the Birmingham Diamond League meet, held the day before, too.
She added: “It was quite a rollercoaster of emotions to be told I wasn’t running at Loughborough, then getting told I was running at both Loughborough and the Diamond League.”
It marks a major achievement both for Spence and her coach, Aberdeen Sports Village-based Eoghan MacNamara.
Spence studied for her degree in midwifery at RGU from 2016 to 2019, working with MacNamara during that time, before landing a job back in Orkney. The pair’s working relationship is strong, even though MacNamara can only see Spence train a handful of times each month.
She said: “It’s not easy, but when I was in Aberdeen for university, we had three years to get to know each other and develop that coach-athlete relationship.
“The plan was to keep coming down monthly for training sessions, whilst he sends me weekly programmes and regular messages. We even do the odd FaceTime to work on starts, which isn’t ideal, but it’s better than nothing.
“I’m progressing, so the relationship is obviously working well and what we’re doing is successful so far, so let’s hope it keeps going that way.”
British star Zoey Clark helped Matheson ahead of first Diamond League appearance
Although Rebecca Matheson has landed several Scotland vests, Saturday also saw her make her Diamond League debut.
The Keith sprinter, who trains alongside fellow Scottish sprinters Zoey Clark and Kelsey Stewart in Aberdeen, drew on the experiences of her training partners as she prepared for what was the highest-profile competition of her career.
Matheson explained Clark, now a regular name on British relay team sheets, helped settle her nerves in the run-up to the competition.
She said: “I was really nervous beforehand, but just speaking to someone who has had that experience is really helpful.
“Zoey told me just to enjoy it, and take it all in. She told me not to overthink it, run like I normally do, and not put pressure on myself.”
Matheson started working with her new coach Ryan Oswald in September, having previously spent five years working with Eddie McKenna, and is working on improving her running technique over the rest of the campaign.
‘I bottled it’ – Rees bounces back from individual disappointment
Meanwhile, Alisha Rees found herself as the most experienced relay runner of the quartet on Saturday, and managed to produce a strong second leg to bounce back from the disappointment of her individual 100m performance, which saw her run 11.64sec.
It was a bitter result for Rees, who opened the season with a Commonwealth Games standard at the beginning of the month.
After a strong start in the individual race, Rees admitted she tensed up in the latter stages before finishing 9th.
She said: “Overall, I’m pretty disappointed with how I performed. I ran 11.64sec, and that’s not the shape I’m in.
“I ran 11.5sec last week with some bad starts, and came through really strongly at the end, whereas in this race I got to 70 metres and died.
“After looking at it with my coach, I got out so well and was really in the mix for 60 to 70 metres. I was ahead of girls I had never beaten before – but I just tensed up completely and by the last 10 metres.”
“I personally think I bottled it,” Rees added. “I was winning out of the Brits, and it is my fault what happened.
“There are things to work on and me and my coach will definitely work on them, and come back even better.”
On the relay, Rees said: “There are a lot of positives to take from the weekend – to come away with a Scottish record and Commonwealth Games time is very positive.”