Monument Mile wins for McLuckie and Teshome

British and Ethiopian athletes take Emsley Carr and Millicent Fawcett Mile titles in Stirling

Henry McLuckie won the Emsley Carr Mile in 3:53.99 ahead of Cameron Boyek’s 3:54.97 as all 11 finishers broke four minutes on a rainy night at the Monument Mile Classic in Stirling on Saturday (Aug 30).

The women’s Millicent Fawcett Mile went to Tsige Teshome in 4:26.79 as the Ethiopian held off Megan Keith, who ran a Scottish native record of 4:26.85, and Sarah Calvert, who ran 4:27.30 a few weeks after claiming the UK 1500m title in Birmingham.

The historic Emsley Carr and Millicent Fawcett titles for these races had faced an uncertain summer. They were seemingly homeless to begin with but ended up at the Manchester International before sensibly moving to Stirling, albeit with only four days’ notice. It meant the Emsley Carr Mile, which began in 1953 and has been won by many of the world’s top milers, was staged on Scottish soil for the first time since 1980, when Colin Reitz won in Meadowbank.

This time McLuckie, a US-based Brit, proved a fine winner as runner-up Boyek ran a PB with Kieran Tuntivate of Thailand third in 3:55.18.

In the twilight of his career, Evan Jager, the 2016 Olympic steeplechase silver medallist and North American record-holder with 8:00.45, was ninth in 3:59.10.

Women’s winner Teshome, a finalist in the world under-20 1500m last year, held off Scottish runners Keith and Calvert to claim the women’s win.

“It was a great race for me to have at this stage as we look towards the final preparations for Tokyo,” Keith said.

“I’ve had some faster training sessions to try and but of course a lot of longer stuff as well. There hasn’t been much opportunity to have fun and race the 1500 girls like I did tonight.”

Such was the quality, defending champion Taryn Rawlings was fourth in 4:28.34 while fellow American Colleen Quigley, a former US indoor mile champion and eighth in the 2016 Olympic steeplechase, was ninth in 4:33.38.

Full results here