Scots impress with 18 medals in Bedford

Monday 23rd June 2014

Scottish athletes picked up no fewer than 18 medals at the England Athletics U23 and U20 Champs in Bedford.

And, with seven of those winning gold to lay claim to the title of British champion in their age group, once again there were promising signs about our current group of emergent athletes.

Kimberley Reed and Shaun Wyllie each picked up U20 event wins and, having achieved World Juniors standards already, should now be confirmed for a trip to the United States next month.

Three of the other gold medallists were Glasgow 2014 squad members Allan Smith, Rachel Hunter and Nick Percy, with Greg Millar setting a PB in his javelin success and James McLachlan at 7.69m in the long jump.

National Youth Academy member Anna Gordon (pictured here by Bobby Gavin) was arguably the pick of the seven silvers won by Scots with her 3.85m clearance in the pole vault an U20 National Record

Our other silver winners were: Jack Lochans (in a Scottish 1-2 in the U23 high jump with Smith); Kirsty Yates in the shot; Zoey Clark with a 400m PB; Faye Nicholson in the U23 long jump; Jack Lawrie in the 400m Hurdles and Kathryn Christie in the 200m.

Four athletes came home with bronze medals: Greg Louden, Madeleine Murray, Mhairi Patience and Tom Watson.

With no European U23 Championship to compete for this summer, the overall medal tally compares favourably with last year’s 23.

For Scots to pick up more than 40 medals in these age group champs over two summers definitely hints at progress by athletes and coaches and an improvement in depth – there were three Scots in the top nine in the U20 1500m race won by Wyllie, for example.

‘It was a good weekend for a number of the athletes and their coaches and we congratulate those who medalled at Bedford,’ said scottishathletics Performance Manager, Mark Pollard.

‘Beyond those who made the podium, we had a number of people making finals and setting PBs.

‘Across the full group of Scottish athletes involved there were positive examples of ‘performing on the day’ which is encouraging to see and indicates coaches are preparing their athletes for chasmpionship events effectively.

‘We also saw some athletes gaining their first experiences at this level of competition, in particular some of the U17 athletes from last season who stepped up to U20 and reached finals which will only benefit them going forward.’

There were a number of coaches and parents who made the effort to travel to Bedford and it is always good to see athletes being supported in this way.

Results are here:

http://www.thepowerof10.info/fixtures/meeting.aspx?meetingid=101364

Tags: Allan Smith, Anna Gordon, Bedford, England Athletics U23/U20 Champs, Kimberley Reed, Nick Percy, Shaun Wyllie, World Juniors