Weekend 16/17 July: Georgia joy; Snowdon; SIAB; Hunter

Monday 18th July 2016

Alisha Rees takes silver in Georgia – photo courtesy of European Athletics

Scottish duo Alisha Rees and Erin Wallace returned home from Georgia from the inaugural European Youth Championships with medals as precious cargo.

Rees won a silver in the 200m and the Banchory Stonehaven/Edinburgh AC athlete featured in three races with a PB of 23.57 in the semi-final.

And Wallace brought back a bronze medal in the 1500m final as her GB team-mate, Sabrina Sinha, took the silver medal in Tbilisi.

For the young Scots, both members of the scottishathletics National Academy, it was a first appearance in GB and NI colours and they were rightly delighted to be on the podium, with Britain topping the overall medal table with 13 in all.

‘I’m really happy,’ said Alisha, who is coached by Willy Russell, after finishing behind French athlete Marine Mignon (23.35) in the final.

‘I came here wanting to win a medal and I achieved that. Being a part of the British team is the best thing ever. We all support each other and have become really good friends and I don’t think we would have achieved the number of medals if it hadn’t been for that.’

Swiss athlete Delia Sclabas won a sprint finish with Sinha in the Women’s 1500m as Giffnock North AAC athlete Wallace, who is coached by Dudley Walker, came home in 4.28.16 to land bronze.

‘I couldn’t be happier – I gave it my all and that’s all you can ask for,’ said Erin.

‘I was so out of it at the end so it was hard to take it all in. I couldn’t have gone any quicker because at the end it felt like I was going backwards. The girls here are a year older, so that gives me a lot of confidence going into international competitions next year.’

All at scottishathletics firmly congratulate both athletes, their families, coaches and clubs on fine performances on the international stage.

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Scotland’s Steph Provan takes third at Snowdon

Scotland hill runners were in action at the Snowdon International Race over the weekend as they tackled the famous 10-mile event.

And there was a fine third place in the Women’s race for Steph Provan on her first appearance in a Scotland vest. A strong descent helped Steph get among the medal positions on a strong debut.

Charlotte Morgan was another top 10 finisher for Scotland with seventh but unfortunately an ankle injury ensured Georgia Tindley became a DNF. With two to count, the Scotland women finished a creditable second to England.

The Scotland men finished third in their team race with Scotland duebutant, James Espie, best-placed in 11^th. Other places were: Sam Hesling 13; Duncan Coombs 15; Kyle Greig 16.

It was a fine performance by James, while Sam had been leading Scot at the summit. The men packed well with only 1 min 40 seconds between all four athletes.

Check out a report online here with some video coverage from Snowdon.

Results

*In the Snowdon Super Cup (uphill race, non-international but select field) there was a win for Louise Mercer by over 90 seconds. Jacob Adkin was fifth in the men’s race.

With thanks to Malcolm Patterson

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Scottish Schools took a team south to Kent on Saturday for the traditional SIAB Schools International event.

The mid-July timing of this event certainly seems to favour English athletes and the Scotland team finished in fourth place this year.

Nonetheless notice that within the results out-lined on the scotstats.net website there are more than 15 PB performances by Scottish athletes. Calum Henderson‘s long jump win was the pick, with his 7.06m taking him fourth on the Scottish U17 all-time list.

Results on Power of Ten

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Rachel Hunter – hammer SB at Loughborough

Rachel Hunter hit form to win the Loughborough LEAP International hammer competition with a fine Season’s Best of 65.13m.

That was a significant improvement on her British Champs performance with Susan McKelvie taking second place with 62.62m. With Myra Perkins on the Scottish Seniors entry list as well as Rachel and Susan, the Grangemouth event looks like a promising competition for all three.

Laura Muir finished second in Italy in an 800m race with 2.01.23 while fellow Rio-bound athlete, Beth Potter, was fifth in a 5000m in Switzerland with 15.29.31.

There was win for Joasia Zakrzewski in Cheshire Half Marathon in 80.10.

Tags: Alisha Rees, Erin Wallace, European Youths, hill running, National Academy, Rachel Hunter, SIAB, Snowdon International