 AAA Under 20/Under 23 Championships 2005 |
Scottish Athletes came away from the AAA’s of England Under 20 and Under 23 Track & Field Championships at Bedford last weekend with 16 medals – 5 of them Gold. Pitreavie`s own Eilidh Child was one of those five Scots to take a Gold Medal.
|
Eilidh Child`s gold and Championship title came in the Under 20 Ladies 400m Hurdles in a season’s best time and her 2nd fastest ever of 59.78 secs. After coming through the heats on Saturday with the fastest time (61.87) of the 3 heats, Eilidh was drawn in lane 5 for the final.
Everything went right for Eilidh, the weather improved just before her race and she put all the technical aspects together. With a final sprint from the last hurdle she held off her two main rivals. This result was one better than last year when she took the Silver. Eilidh is now back on top of the UK Under 20 rankings.
|
Stephanie Walker, who is still only an under 17, continued her brilliant form over the 100m Hurdles and followed up her victory in the Scottish Under 20 championships for the event by running exceptionally well to reach the final of the U20 100m Hurdles. Her heat time of 14.47 secs was a personal best and an Pitreavie Under 17 Ladies record. In the final she had to contend with a -1.9 m/s headwind and came a very credible 7th in 14.62 secs. She could surely have beaten her club record again in the final if it wasn`t into such a strong headwind.
Lauren Candlish who has been battling her way back to form since having an ankle operation before last season has shown signs of returning to her best form. Lauren was running in the Under 20 400m where she came second in her heat in 57.54 to qualify for the final. In the final she ran quicker to record a seasons best when finishing 8th in 57.17 secs. This is Lauren`s fastest time since before she had the operation.
|
John Newsom competed in the Under 23 Men’s 5000m and tried his hardest to stick with the leading three who already had the Under 23 European Qualifying time of 14mins 05 secs from previous races. Although John was unable to stay with them he shook off a strong challenge from another competitor just after half way and finished 4th in 14 mins 36.77 secs – just three seconds outside his best.
Last but not least Jamie Coull who is another athlete who has had to go through several years of injury problems continues to show he is free of any problems and is starting to fulfil his undoubted potential when he reached the semi final of the under 23 100m when he ran 11.06s in his heat for 6th place but as he was in one of the fastest heats he reached the final as one of the fastest losers. In the final Jamie was 7th in 11.10 secs.
NG/PA 05/07/2005
|
