Scottish Schools Indoor Championships.

Many Kilmarnock Harrier athletes, competing under their school name, ran, jumped or threw at the Scottish Schools. Unfortunately, with a big admin issue that had happened, races were running very late and so athletes were tired. Some prevailed from the fatigue to write down a personal best in their books. I myself was waiting around for quite a bit, so I don’t have first-hand information on how well their performances went- just times. Lauren Greig, Loudon Academy, ran a tremendous PB in her 60m. Her previous time was 8.27 and in the heats, she rounded down her time to 8.22 in second place. She advanced through to the semi’s to which she PB’d again down to an amazing 8.14. This time puts her 3^rd in Scotland for Under 15 girls. Not only that, but Lauren is only 0.04 off top in Scotland. With that time, and being in 3^rd place, Lauren was placed in the 60m final. The final was a mixture of ages, some girls the same age as Lauren, some almost a year and a half older. Being the younger of the competition, Lauren finished in 7^th place stopping the photo finish at 8.21s. She was also entered for the 200m and in heat 10, Lauren was 3^rd with 27.87- about 0.4 shy of her indoor PB. Lauren then improved on her previous time by 0.05 in the semi-final. She crossed the line in 4^th place with 27.82s. She did not advance any further. Evie Bartl, Grange Academy, was second overall in the pole vault with 2.20m. She also competed in shot putt to which she finished in 7^th place with a putt of 9.33m. Hannah Bartl, competing with the Glasgow School of Sport, ran in her specialist event of 300m. She ran in heat number one and finished 3^rd with a good time of 45.18s. She advanced through to the semis where she finished 6^th but couldn’t advance on her time. She ran 45.30s. Cameron Wilson, Loudoun, ran in his preferred event of 400m. With uncertainty of the qualifying and whether or not it was a semi or a final due to admin problems, he decided not to press on at the end and finished 2^nd with a time of 55.95. After the officials deciding to go with a straight final, Cameron’s qualifying time could not cut a fastest loser position. He doubled up in the 200m and finished 2^nd in heat 5 with a consistent time of 24.85s. This allowed him to progress through to the semi-final at 200m. He stopped the clock at 24.92 but unfortunately couldn’t progress any further. Kuda Taptapa, St. Joseph’s Academy, competed in the shorter sprint event- 60m. He lined up in heat 6 alongside some big names in Scotland. He won his heat comfortably enough with 7.45s. This allowed Kuda to progress into the semi final where he had a dodgy start and was left behind. However, he pulled it back and finished 4^th in a fastest loser position with a relatively faster time of 7.43s. In the final, Kuda looked to be the fastest out the blocks but fell into 7^th place with an even better time of 7.37s. Reed Wyper, Kilmarnock Academy, and Kuda Taptapa lined up in the 200m series. Reed finished 3^rd but whilst missing training due to injury, he ran a time of 25.23s. Kuda ran in the heat after Reed and won his heat well. His recorded time was 23.89s. He ran later on in the next round and stopped the clock in 3^rd place with a recorded time of 23.65s but it wasn’t enough to make the final. All in all, despite the delay due to admin, there were some good races ran by our athletes. The Scottish Schools is one of the biggest competitions in Scotland with over 200 schools entering at least one athlete and there are many unfamiliar faces that haven’t been seen before and some don’t even compete with clubs. With the indoor season coming to an end, it’s time to reflect on the season in order to prepare for the outdoors. Article by Reed Wyper.

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