Scots land a dozen medals in Sheffield

Monday 15th February 2016

Cameron Tindle – Scottish U20 record (photo by Steve Adam in Sheffield)

Records, medals, final places and PBs were the order of the day in Sheffield for the Scottish ‘raiding party’ at the England Athletics Age Group Champs over the weekend.

A dozen medals were duly collected across the U20, U17 and U15 age brackets with members of our National Academy very much to the fore.

Sprinter Cameron Tindle landed a Scottish U20 record in the 200m while there were British title wins for Ben Greenwood and Jemma Reekie at U20 and Alessandro Schenini at U17 level, as well as a raft of other medals and good performances across all three age groups.

Behind the bare facts of the medals, there were a number of promising signs and the future of 800m running looks good with three Scots in the six-strong men’s U20 final (Greenwood, Aidan Gilbride and Robbie Barr) and two apiece in the Women’s U20 (Carys McAulay and Reekie) and U17 finals (Erin Wallace and Olivia Vareille).

Tindle had to settle for third in his 200m final on Sunday but there was significant consolation with his time of 21.46 good enough to break the Scottish record for the distance at U20 indoors. Alec Thomas is third on that list from a run last year, so current athletes are showing up well.

Ben Greenwood and Aidan Gilbride in heat action in the 800m

Greenwood won his 800m title in impressive style in 1.53.63 and his fellow GB youth international, George Evans, won a silver in the shot putt at 15.82m. In the U20 jumps, there were bronzes for Lewis McGuire in the high jump at 1.95 and Ross McLachlan in the long jump at 7.09m. In that high jump comp, Chris Mackay was fourth at 1.95m.

Reekie competed in both the 800m and the 1500m over the weekend and the Kilbarchan AAC athlete was crowned British champion in the longer distance in 4.36.03. In the 800m final, Carys McAulay took silver with her time of 2.07.43 taking her to second place on the all-time U20 list. Jemma finished fifth.

Anna Gordon took silver in the U20 pole vault on Saturday with 3.75m and there was a bronze in the 400m final for Kelsey Stewart at 56.14.

In the U17s, pride of place once again went to Giffnock North athlete, Alessandro Schenini. The long jumper has been in fine form in the indoor season and he picked up gold with 6.95m.

Alessandro’s club-mate, Erin Wallace, took home bronze in the 800m final with 2.09.70 with Falkirk Victoria’s Vareille fifth in that race. Aidan Quinn took a bronze in the triple jump with 13.74m.

in the U15s, there were good performances from the likes of Katie Sharkey, Alasdair McMonagle, Alexander Mackay and Laura Ferguson.