Preparation for Scottish Championships are going well

With one week to go until the Scottish U14 Championships to be held this year in Aberdeen final preparations are progressing well and there is ground for optimism that some of our youngster won’t be coming home empty handed.  It has to be said that we had been extremely lucky with the weather over the last few weeks, which allowed us to put in quality training sessions, in particular for the pole vault.

Generally, there have been excellent performances recorded by our youngsters in the recent past,  which is proof that the athletic development within this age group is right on track. Some of these youngsters are only 12 years of age and will have another year in this age group (U14). I am fairly confident that their time will come soon where they can also challenge for medals at national level if they continue showing dedication and hard work during their training.  In the end it’s usually the athletes, who show a real commitment by putting in the extra bit of work and are then rewarded with a medal.

The recent success of our bronze medal team (Sophie Rowan, Erin Connelly, Lauren Greig and Evie Bartl) at the U14 National  4x 100m relay championships and the final of the Youth Development league has highlighted that Kilmarnock Harriers is now producing athletes, who can compete successfully at the top of their chosen event. Kilmarnock athletes excelled in the horizontal and vertical jumps, sprints (including hurdles) and the throws (mainly shot and javelin).

In the jumps we had excellent performances from Jamie Neilson (4.45m) and David Stark (4.25m), who both won their long jump event at the YDL. Sophie Rowan jumped to a new PB 1.40m in the high jump, 4.20m in the long jump and shows continuous progress in the hurdles. Lauren Greig has gone from strength to strength, setting numerous PBs in the sprint (her 150m would have been a Scottish age group record if it had been properly certified). Lauren made also good progress in learning the javelin event with a best of 20.53m, evident in her bronze medal at the West District. Evie Bartl has already recorded good results and national medals indoors and outdoors in the combined events and won her throws events at the Scottish Schools (shot and javelin). The 12 year old Harrier is now about to embark on a new adventure. After having mastered the basics of pole vaulting Evie decided its time to put it to the test; fingers crossed we might see a Kilmarnock Harrier’s athlete winning a national medal in the pole vault event.  Her recent clearance of 2.05m might suggest that this is a real possibility.

Although it’s been hard work at times, in particular for me as a coach as I occasionally had to step in and play the role as a training’s partner for Lauren. ( I must say not a real match to Lauren but I gave it my best shot).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beside the hard work we also had a lot of fun with our reaction games, trying to catch a tennis ball before it bounces twice; an exercise Lauren has perfected as the following video shows  click here.

Whatever happens on Sunday in Aberdeen, one thing our athletes can be certain, they put in all the hard work  into their preparation. What they now need is a bit of good fortune and hopefully we see a few smiling faces returning from the Granite city.