Harriers Hit New Heights At National Championships

Saturday and Sunday the 5 &6^th of March saw a number of athletes from Kilmarnock Harriers turn out for the Scottish National Indoor Championships Under 13, 15 and 20’s age groups at the Emirates Indoor Arena in Glasgow.

In the under 13 Girls Hannah Burns, Mhairi Chalmers, Lottie Lambert, Ilsa Reaburn, Eilidh Ballantyne, Mirren Callaghen and Emily O’Shea. I’m sure they themselves and the club are delighted with the number of personal best achieved that day. Hannah Burns who has been out of action for a while stormed the 800m with pb and a win in her heat followed by Lottie Lambert. In another heat for 800m Ilsa Reaburn came first followed third by Mhairi Chalmers and in 5th Place Mirran Callaghan. In the boys Under 13s were Lewis Hill, Luke Baird, Riley Dalziel, Aiyden McMohan and Roan Henderson. Again doing themselves and their Club proud. Aiyden and Riley having a good performance in the 60m. While Roan achieved 11.50 secs for the hurdles and 1.21m for the high jump.

Emily O’Shea, competed very well in her first National competition where she competed in three events long jump, hurdles and high jump. Emily run 11.34 in the 60m hurdles and then later competed simultaneously in the long jump and high jump. Despite having to run between both events Emily achieved excellent personal bests in the long jump and made it to the final with her best effort of 4.15 and was later able to improve her best to 4.19m. However, it was her high jump where Emily really excelled jumping two personal bests, which secured her the bronze medal in a new best height of 1.36m.

Sara Barbour, U15 had fine jumps clearing 1.82m and 2.02m in the pole vault. She attempted a new best of 2.22m but was unlucky that her hand knocked the bar down at the last moment.

Finlay Walker, U15, competed in the Pole vault, which proved to be an excellent competition for Finlay. Finlay had only recently started to vault over the magic three-meter barrier and he jumped 2 new PBs at this championships. Clearing 3.12 on his first attempt, 3.22m in his second attempt that claimed him the gold medal in his age group. Finlay had also 3 attempts at the Scottish record at 3.33 and might have achieved this height if he had not started the competition at the low height of 2.62m, so already had to jump 9 times prior to attempting the record. In the end his legs might have become too tired by then. All in all a great achievement for this 14 year old boy, who has made great leaps in the recent past and is currently the leading pole vaulter in his age group in Scotland.

Also competing in the under 15 category this weekend were Kudzai Tapatapa in the 60m and 200m. Kudzai ran well in both events and reached the semi final of the 200m. Josh Smith competed in the 60m and reached the final in what was his first ever national championships and his first year in the age group. Caitlin Kelly ran the 60m Hurdles in a very respectable11.33secs whilst still trying to compete in the Long Jump where she managed 4.09m. Also long jumping were Caitlin’s club mates Courtney Goodwin 3.86m and Isla Neilson 3.63m. Isla had a busy day as she also ran in the 800m reaching the final with a best time of 2.33.46, as well competing in the 300m where she ran 47.99secs. Also running in the 300m was Erin Connolly where she achieved 47.77secs. Erin also competed in the 200m along with Natalie Sharp running 29.36 and 31.23secs respectively. Natalie also had a good series of three throws in the Shot Putt, her best at 7.79m but all three throws over 7 meters.

The under 20 athletes events were spread over the two days with club athletes competing on both. The athletes were Max Walton, Cameron Wilson, Kyle Jackson, Fraser Angus and Kuda Tapatapa competing in an Edinburgh Vest.

Cameron, Kyle and Kuda ran in the 400m with all three athletes running strongly with Kuda progressing to the final. Kuda was up against his strongest rival in the country from Cumbernauld AC. In a blistering first lap both athletes hit the break line almost simultaneously however the Cumbernauld athlete took the lead and hat is the way it stayed until the end despite a valiant attempt to regain the front from Kuda. It did however result in a new indoor personal best of 49.74secs and a Silver medal.

In the 200 meter event Max Walton and Fraser Angus were competing. Fraser who has already claimed national indoor titles this winter as 60m U17 Scottish Champion and Scottish Schools 200m Champion. Max was first up and hoping to achieve a new personal best however as the gun went his front bock slipped causing him to stumble. Despite this he ran on and was only a tenth of a second outside his personal best. Fraser progressed to the final having negotiated the preliminary rounds and semi finals. In the final Fraser who is only sixteen ad was moving up an age category to compete in the under 20’s, pulled out a blistering run to finish in 22.03secs which was a new personal best. He was also 3 tenths of a second ahead of the second place athlete.

As you can see there have been some fantastic performances over this weekend. That is down to the hard work of the athletes and coaches who train the, but also having one of the best facilities in Scotland to train at.

 

Photographs by Colin Young Photography and Harald Bartl