Harriers Shine at the Scottish Senior and Under 17 Indoor Championships

A number of athletes from Kilmarnock Harriers made the snowy journey up the A77 on Saturday morning to compete in the 2016 National Indoor Senior and Under 17 Track and Field Championships. This is the first time the two age groups have been run together and it worked extremely well ensuring that there was always action on track.

An additional boost to the championships was the fact that Richard Kilty the World Indoor 60meter sprint Champion was going to be competing on the day.

This was a day that certainly did not disappoint first up competing for Victoria Park Glasgow was Kilmarnock coached Andrew Peck claiming the Gold medal on his second throw in a personal best of 12.86 meters. Andrew is also part of the Scottish Athletics Academy project in his specialist event Discus.

Next to claim a medal was one of Andrews training partner whom Throws Coach Alex McIntosh also coaches at Kilmarnock. Hannah Paisley throwing for Ayr Seaforth claimed a Bronze medal in 10.28 meters only centimeters behind the Guernsey based athlete.

Meanwhile on track sprinter Scott Young had blistered his way through the heats of the 60 meters in a season’s best time qualifying for the semi finals. In the semi final Scott was unfortunate to miss out on a place in the finals against Richard Kilty, which had been his aim. However, Scott ran even faster than he had in the heats taking his seasons best to 7.28secs only 6 hundredths off his personal best. Kilty eventually triumphed in this event in a world class time of 6.65 secs.

In the under 17 womens race there were two athletes from the club Lauren Greig competing for the Glasgow School of Sport and Sophie Rowan a stalwart of the club. Sophie had an excellent run in her first year in the under 17 category to improve her 60 meter personal best by over a tenth of a second taking it down to 8.61sec’s which she and her parents were delighted with. She was unfortunate not to progress to the semi finals missing out by only one place.

Lauren Greig a seasoned sprinter despite only being fifteen and also competing in her first year as an under 17, had to work hard in all of her qualifying runs to get to the final. However that was not good enough for her as she hadn’t broken the 8-second barrier. Well the final was to prove a heart stopper, possibly upstaging the World Champions race. The race was won in a time of 7.93 secs with five athletes between 7.93 and 7.98 secs. The photo finish officials had a bit of work to do. In the end up Lauren who had come back from a meter down had claimed the Silver medal in a new personal best of 7.95 secs having missed first place by 2 hundredths of a second and having the same time as the third placed athlete. Her mum commented that Lauren had worn her thicker running vest for just such an occasion.

The 60 meters were not over yet Fraser Angus was still to see if his recent good form would hold out for the Championships. Fraser cruised through the heats to the final as second fastest being edged by two hundredths of a second by his great rival from Central Athletics Club. In final Fraser had discovered that the Central athlete meant business and found himself half a meter down with 10 meters to go. Fraser held his composure and pulled it back to out dip his opponent on the line to take the Gold in a new personal best time of 7.15 secs. Fraser having consulted with his coaches and the Physiotherapist made the mature decision to withdraw from the 200m due to a slight hamstring strain and the fact he is competing later in the week at the Scottish Schools Indoor Championships, as are most of the athletes mentioned in this report.

 While all of this had been going on, Club Pole Vaulter Evie Bartl coached by her very proud dad Harald was competing in the under 17 women’s Pole Vault. Evie had a difficult time finding her form and despite not vaulting at her best she managed to hold her nerve to claim the Silver medal with a height of 2.62 meters. Measure that against your wall and you will be very surprised at just how high that is!

Aberdeen based Lorne Kerr was next up in the Senior Women’s 400 meters. Lorne found herself in the fastest of the two heats and unfortunately lost touch with the front runners towards the end of the first lap however still held her form to match her personal best for an indoors 400 meters. It is to Lorne’s credit that despite having moved so far away from the club and her coach, whilst attending university she is still managing to maintain her training.

Last race of the day was the Under 17 Women’s 200 meters in which Lauren Greig was racing. Lauren had qualified for the final having run two very well controlled races in the heats and semi finals. In the final Lauren who had qualified as third fastest blew the field apart to finish in Gold medal position in an excellent time of 25.67 secs a tenth of a second in front of second place and just under a second in front of third.

The achievements of the all the athlete’s listed above have come about due to hard work and dedication. On behalf of all coaches involved with these athlete’s I would like to say well done and congratulations.

Thanks go to Bobby Gavin and Colin Young for the use of their photographs.