Jack Lawrie takes a fine win in the Men’s 400m Hurdles at Loughborough (photo by Bobby Gavin)
*Please note this round-up does not set out to report on every single peformance and is subject to corrections, updates in due course.
Discus duo Kirsty Law and Nick Percy once again posted Loughborough International event wins on a solid day of Scotland performances.
A quickfire track double in mid-afternoon from Jack Lawrie in the 400m hurdles and Carys McAulay in the Women’s 400m gave us full points there, too.
And Steven Bryce savoured a fine repeat win in the Para 1500m after winning here last year – with this time the Para events included in the overall match.
Those were the event wins but the overall pictures was about PBs, strong performances and lots of learning in a large Scotland team with a wide range of experience of this kind of event – from 17-year-old Jenna Hilditch to our Loughborough International appearance Record-holder, Kirsty Law.
It is always an honour for athletes at all ages and stages to pull on a Scotland vest.
That pride was evident throughout the weekend and we were delighted to have no fewer than 16 athletes make their first appearnace for Scotland at Senior level.
Those ‘new caps’ were as follows:
Dawn Russell, Jenna Hilditch, Jamie MacKinnon, Conan Harper, Adam Hoole, Loise Garland, Hannah Cameron, Jane Davidson, Ethan Pottie, Finlay Waugh, Cian O’Donnell, Max Leslie, Sofia Vidak, Bera Ajala and Steven Bryce.
It is also the first time that the Loughborough International has included Para events within the Match scoring. We were pleased to have Alexander Thomson, Steven Bryce and Maria Lyle wearing Scotland vests in these events.
Steven delivered a fine win in his 1500m race with a 4:06 run that was strong enough to hold off a big challenge from England on the home straight.
It was a repeat win from last year, with the difference this year being points for Scotland after that move by the Loughborough event organisers to fuller integration.
Match Score: 1 England 202, 2 Loughborough 154, 3 National League 153, 4 GB Juniors 136, 5 Scotland 123.5, 6 Wales 79.5.
Nick Percy on his way to the win in the Men’s discus (photo by Bobby Gavin)
‘Teamwork makes the dream work’ – our video interviews from Loughborough
Kirsty Law almost has as many Loughborough appearances as those aforementioned 16 athletes put together.
Kirsty, who threw in Inverness the week before, had considered not competing this time after countless Scotland call-ups. Feeling not totally ready in May, she duly changed her mind on withdrawing – and once again delivered full points with a discus win in 56.30m.
‘I thought it over and asked myself ‘Why would I not represent Scotland?’. There was no real reason not to other than my own ego getting in the way and thinking it might not go well.
‘Who knows, this might be my last year so far better to pull on the vest than sit in the house. And then just do your best on the day.’
Like Kirsty, Jack Lawrie is no stranger to this event and, at 27, was delighted to win the Men’s 400m Hurdles race at this meet for the first time.
‘I was here as a GB Junior maybe eight or nine years ago and then a handful of Scotland appearances,’ he said.
‘So to win it this time and representing Scotland is a good feeling. It is my opening race of the season so hopefully I can build on things from here and have a good 2023.’
Kirsty Law and Carys McAulay (below) took wins in their events at Loughborough (photo by Bobby Gavin)
No sooner had Lawrie won in 51.15 than Carys McAulay made it two track wins in a row for Scotland.
Carys won the Women’s 400m race with a strong performance in 52.68 for a PB as she headed Seren Bundy-Davies of Wales. That is 12th all-time for Carys. Kyle Alexander was fourth in the Men’s 400m.
There were more points for Scotland in the Women’s throws as Teddy Tchoudja took third place in the shot put. Teddy threw a PB of 15.33m in the event tomove to sixth on the all-time list.
Nick Percy did his bit for the team, once again, as he won the Men’s discus with a best throw of 60.73.
Also in the field, Will Grimsey took second place in the High Jump with 2.12m his best clearance (after David Smith winning here last year).
In the sprints, Alyson Bell took second place in the 100m in the slipstream of Imani Lansiquot as the Scot clocked 11.55 seconds.
Unfortunately, injury prevented Krishawn Aiken from competing with his regret no doubt intensified after being named Scotland captain for the Match.
Back to the track and there were hard efforts from Hannah Cameron and Kane Elliott at 800m, with Aberdeen AAC’s Hannah taking fourth. Similarly, Michael Cameron over the 3000m steeplechase and Jamie MacKinnon in the George Gandy Mile race had solid runs.
There was fourth place for Greg Millar in the javelin (68:48m) and third for Alessandro Schenini (7:40m) in the long jump.
Jane Davidson took fourth in the 100m Hurdles with 13.78. Adam Hoole‘s sprint hurdles performance at 14.74 is 20th best all-time.
The best performance in the relays was by our Women’s 4x100m quartet as they finished fourth in the race behind three different GB teaams (U23, Senior and U20 selections).
*Good to see young thrower, Angela McAuslan-Kelly, in action for GB Juniors for the first time in the Women’s hammer. Dean Patterson featured in the 4x100m for GB Juniors, too, as well as in a guest 200m.
Our Scotland 4x100m teams at the Loughborough International 2023 (photos by Bobby Gavin)
Tags: Carys McAulay, Jack Lawrie, Kirsty Law, Loughborough International, Loughborough International 2023, Nick Percy, Steven Bryce
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