Saturday 21st August 1971 - The Edinburgh Highland Games

Puttemans a year later in Munich

The morning after the night before. It was odd awakening at Oxgangs with Nana 'n Gaga here. Gaga laughed off Nana’s comments about him imbibing at the wedding – ‘Not at all - I was absolutely sober!’  You have to laugh. After breakfast they headed back down to Porty. 

Meanwhile Boo-Boo, Iain and I went down to Meadowbank Sports Centre to watch the Edinburgh Highland Games. It’s the first time I've been there since we went to watch the Commonwealth Games in 1970. It was brilliant. A cracking day with big crowds and some great athletics to watch not to mention a world record thrown in - the place was buzzing! 

Emiel Puttemans from Belgium broke the two miles world best. It was some run against some great opposition. He's clearly going to be a bit of a handful for all the great British runners over the 5000 metres in next year's Olympics in Munich. He kept blasting through each lap in around 62 seconds and just kept going. It was some field too - all the Stewarts - Lachie; Ian 'n Peter; Brendan Foster; Alan Rushmer and Mike Tagg. Once the crowd realised he was going to keep on going we were all on our feet clapping and cheering him on; not only did he break Ron Clarke's world record but he was about seven seconds in front of Foster who ran a British record!

David Jenkins on the last leg, Meadowbank 1972

It was also good to see Edinburgh's David Jenkins running after his gold medal in Helsinki, not in the quarter but he ran the 100 metres and also a great flying leg in the 4 x 100 metres relay. The three of us had a fantastic day out. It's given me a bit of an appetite for the old athletics. I wonder how you get into it. 

Back home to Oxgangs; we're home alone. Quite a few kids were all hanging out tonight - Lorraine and Jacqueline Burns were there. We then settled in for the night with some of Rissi's best and the telly. A solid night including Lulu. Thereafter Sportsreel; it's still the League Cup  -  a good win for the Hibs but a defeat for the Hearts; a wee bit of Parky before bed; Freddie Trueman was on; he’s pretty straight talking - refreshing!