Top-level athletes who graced regional league

Aberdeen AAC’s Zoey Clark, Dundee Hawkhill’s Eilish McColgan and Inverness Harriers’s Kirsty Law are among a long list of top-level competitors who cut their teeth in the RAM athletics league which opens for its 39th season this weekend.

The regional competition for all age groups gets under way with an East Division meeting at Aberdeen Sports Village and a North Division meeting at Queen’s Park, Inverness, both on Sunday.

Clark, who helped Scotland set a new national 4x400metres relay record at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games this month, still holds the league under-17 girls’ 300m record of 39.44sec set in 2010. McColgan, a double Olympian who was sixth in the 5,000m at Gold Coast, set a league under-15 800m mark

The longest standing league records were both set in 1982

of 2:15.4 in 2004 which hasn’t been beaten.

Law, who represented Scotland at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, set an as yet unchallenged under-17 girls’ discus record of 39.04m in 2003.

The longest standing league records, both set in 1982, were achieved by Aberdeen AAC sprinters Kathleen Madigan and Michelle Bruce.

Madigan, coach for some of Aberdeen’s current crop of youngsters, holds the under-13 girls’ 100m mark of 12.9 while Bruce holds the under-15 girls’ 100m record of 12.6.

Dundee Hawkhill are the defending men’s and women’s champions in the East Division, while Ross County are the north title-holders and Inverness Harriers are the women’s champions

Meanwhile, Inverness Harriers host an open graded track and field meeting at Queen’s Park tonight at 5pm.

Zoey Clark: Cut her teeth in the regional league