Scotland put six past Portugal to stay on track in promotion bid

Scotland grabbed top spot in their pool at the European Nations Championships II at Glasgow Green by crushing Portugal 6-1 yesterday

The result means coach Derek Forsyth’s side are still on course for promotion to Europe’s top flight.

The Scots went ahead after only 30 seconds with a stroke of luck. Lee Morton created the opening on the right baseline and after his initial shot rebounded back to him, his second effort went in off the keeper’s foot.

The expected avalanche of home goals failed to materialise, however, as the game went a little flat with Portugal retreating into defence.

In fact the next goal was a shock equaliser for the visitors when Luis Tavares scored at a penalty corner after Scotland keeper Tommy Alexander had made a double save.

Within a minute the Scots were back in front as Kenny Bain dispossessed a Portuguese defender, headed straight for the circle and slipped the ball past the advancing goalie.

A flashing shot by Chris Grassick from the top of the circle almost added a third, but the score was only delayed by a couple of minutes. The Scots were awarded a penalty and Alan Forsyth casually sent a low flick into the net.

The home side totally controlled proceedings in the third quarter and killed the game off as a contest when a long corner pass found Forsyth in the circle and the Surbiton striker created space for himself and found the net with a low shot.

Then Gavin Byers fired a long ball to Jamie Wong and his hard cross was deflected home by Forsyth to complete his hat-trick and make it 5-1.

The Scots added a sixth at a late penalty corner, when Morton stroked a blocked shot into into the empty net.

In the earlier pool match, favourites France thumped Ukraine 5-1, leaving both sides trailing the Scots by three points. Scotland face Ukraine in their final pool match today needing only a draw to qualify for Friday’s crucial promotion semi-finals. As Usain Bolt departs the world stage, Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa continued his ascension to theroleofworld’sbestmale sprinter as he comfortably defended his 400m title in a time of 43.98.

The Olympic champion and world record holder, who has a 100m PB of 9.94, is aiming to be the first man since Michael Johnson to do the 400m-200m double. He was the redhot favourite and coasted home ahead of Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas and Abdalelah Haroun of Qatar.

Only seven runners took part after Botswana’s Isaac Makwala was turned away from the stadium after being ruled ineligible to compete at the world championships because of a stomach bug that has affected about 30 people at one of the official hotels.

Makwala was withdrawn from the final by the IAAF about five hours before the race, but he had earlier posted on his Facebook page that he was feeling fine.

“It is with a bleeding heart that I formally announce that I will not be part of the 400m final,” Makwala later wrote on Facebook.

Britain’s Kyle Langford put in a staggering finish in the men’s 800m final, charging from last at the top of the home straight to fourth and within a whisker of a medal. The gold went to Pierre-ambroise Bosse of France. Sam Kendricks of the USA won the men’s pole vault.

Britain’s Dina Ashersmith qualified for the women’s 200 metres semifinals with a comfortable heatwin.asher-smithwon her heat in 22.73 seconds to advance fourth fastest behind 100m bronze medallist Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands, who clocked 22.63secs.

The United States’ Tori Bowie, the 100m champion, did not start her heat as she continues to recover from the tumble she took after claiming that gold on Sunday.

Briton Bianca Williams advanced as one of two fastest losers, in 19th place in 23.30, but Shannon Hylton was only 23rd in 23.39 to miss out.