National Training Days; New Year Sprint draw

Thursday 5th December 2019

Coaches and athletes will meet this weekend for the next sessions in our National Training Days.

Grangemouth and Pitreavie are the venues for what will be the second of a series of event specific workshops taking place over the 2019-20 winter – with the first gathering having been at the Emirates Arena at the start of November.

The Sprints/Hurdles and Jumps sessions are at Pitreavie and the throws at Grangemouth with invited coaches and athletes given the opportunity to grow their learning in their chosen discipline.

Invited athletes will be introduced to tools and support to help frame their winter training in preparation for 2020.

The National Training Days for the moment cover Jumps, Throws, and Sprints/Hurdles with input from scottishathletics via our event leads Allan Scott, Alison Grey and Gillian Cooke as well as other experienced and respected coaches.

Endurance athletes and coaches are of course this weekend involved in the Lindsays District XC Relays.

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Greg Kelly won the New Year Sprint for the second time on 1 January 2019

The heats draw for 151st running of the historic 110m New Year Sprint Handicap were made at Musselburgh – with the 2020 winner to collect £5000.

Uninterrupted by war or weather, the event has taken place every year since 1870.

The 2019 top four were Greg Kelly (East Kilbride AC), Douglas Young (Kelso), Alessandro Schenini (Giffnock North) and Murray Blair (Lasswade AC) will renew rivalry with Kelly penalised three metres for his second win in the event on January 1 this year.

Three other former winners are in the line-up: Callum McWilliam (East Kilbride), Daniel Paxton (Hawick) and Doug Donald (Oakham).  A rejuvenated Ian Horsburgh (Central AC) along with last year’s Vets winner and multi NYS finalist Cameron Smith (Central AC) head the veteran challenge.

Eight female athletes are declared all hoping to emulate the win of Jazmine Tomlinson in 2016, as yet, the only female winner in the history of the race.

Edinburgh AC’s Stacey Downie who won the final sprint of the Games season at Pitlochry will be the female backmarker off 19m. 1.5m ahead of Stacey will be Megan Busby Bell (Carlisle Aspatria AC) and Sarah Malone (Edinburgh AC).

Heats of the New Year Sprint along with all supporting events will take place on Monday 30 December at the Meadowmill Sports Centre with the semi-finals and final of the New Year Sprint at Musselburgh Racecourse on 1 January 2020.

With thanks to Shane Fenton

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Tags: Alison Grey, Allan Scott, Gillian Cooke, Grangemouth, Greg Kelly, National Training Days, New Year Sprint, Pitreavie