Six of Shetland’s Under 13 and Under 15 athletes took part in the Scottish Age Group Championships in Grangemouth at the weekend, in what was the largest ever of these events.  The weather was bright and wind conditions light and the performances of the Shetland athletes reflected the opportunity that both the standard of competition and these conditions provided.

The first day saw the Under 15s in action, starting with Isla Tindall in the 100m heats.  Isla set the trend and smashed her previous personal best taking 6th in her heat in 14.06 seconds, a huge 0.84 seconds off her previous time.  In the boys event the massive personal best rate continued with Lewis Williamson finishing in 2nd in his heat in 12.72 seconds, 0.28 seconds off his previous best.  Jack Baronet was 3rd in his heat in 12.46 seconds, 0.54 seconds off his personal best.  Both boys qualified for the semi-finals.

Over in the field, Isaiah Christie was throwing in the javelin.  Isaiah did very well with his furthest throw taking him through into the final 8 competitors.  This had been the aim owing to this being Isaiah’s first year in this age group and his success saw him finish in 8th with a best throw of 24.75m.

Caitlin Anderson ran extremely well in her 1500m heat, coming through the line in 5:23:94, less than a second from her personal best.  This was a great performance in a large field and with the need to run wide on occasion during the race, the clock did not reflect the quality of Caitlin’s run.

In the semi-finals of the 100m the boys continued to post great times with Jack at 12.54 seconds and Lewis at 12.73 seconds.  Both just missed out on the final, finishing in overall 9th and 10th positions.

The afternoon held the 200m races and Isla was first off the mark with her heat. Again Isla smashed her personal best with a time of 28.47 seconds, 0.55 second off her previous best and earning automatic qualification for the semi-final.  The boys saw their semi-final removed from the timetable and so qualification to get from their heat to the final would be tough.  Both boys succeeded with excellent runs which saw both work all the way through to the line, both taking 3rd in their respective heats.  Huge personal bests continued to be the order of the day with Lewis posting 25.55 seconds and Jack 26.02 seconds.

In the girls semi-final, Isla took 5th place in a fantastic run of 28.68 seconds, the second 200m of the day which was well under her previous best.

The 200m final saw Lewis and Jack take 6th and 7th positions respectively in times of 26.09 and 26.29 seconds, which were wonderful times in what was their fourth high quality race of the competition.

On the second day of competition, Holly Gray was competing in the field and saw one of the largest javelin fields that has been in these championships with 27 athletes entered. Conditions at the time of Holly’s throws were very warm and she did remarkably well to cope with the time between throws.  Holly qualified for the final 8 with ease and finished in an overall 6th place with her best distance of the day of 19.60m.  To round off a day of throwing, Holly just had time for lunch before heading off to the shot.  This was also a very large field and the qualification was tough.  Holly took joint 12th place overall out of the 22 athletes competing with a distance of 6.06m.  This was a great result, especially with the heat and the extended time between trials.

Competing in the Under 20s, which was spread over the two days, was Katie Dinwoodie.  Although her identity may have been mistaken by strangers due to her entries under her first claim club of Pitreavie, Katie very much formed part of the Shetland contingent over both days of competition.  The first day of running saw Katie demonstrate the form that she is in with comfortable qualification for the 200m followed up with a bronze medal in a fantastic time of 24.95 seconds, her first U20s medal.

The second day saw Katie go one better, with a repeat comfortable qualification in the 100m taking her on to silver in the final in a time of 12.71 seconds, much to the delight of the cheering young athletes.

Shetland AAC Chairwoman, Elaine Park commented, “We have all had such a great time at the competition and to see all of our athletes achieve on such a stage has been really inspiring.  They have shown that they can compete at national level, despite what was thrown at them through the pandemic and everyone has really enjoyed the experience gained too.  All the coaches are just delighted by the performances they have recorded and we look forward to seeing what is next for them all.  Thanks are extended to Serco Northlink Ferries for their support for this trip.”