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UK Athletics’ Sportshall event has been the stepping-stone for many talented athletes who have gone onto claim medals for Great Britain in the past – such as Kelly Sotherton and Mark Lewis Francis. On Saturday it was the turn of 36 talented and budding athletes from all across the Scottish Borders, who travelled up to Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh to take part in the East of Scotland Region Finals of Sportshall – the UK Athletics development event for younger athletes.

Following on from the Borders first ever appearance in 2006 the event was a great success with great running and success in field events from many of the boys and girls who participated. The under-13 boys and the under-13 girls both performed well with both teams coming in third place overall.

Individually there were outstanding performances from a number of the athletes – in the girls’ races Demi Schofield was overall in 1st place in the 2-lap race and Henrietta Cooper 1st in the 4-lap race. For the boys, Greg Gillan came out top in the Triple Jump and Steven Mitchell was 1st in the Speed Bounce event. For someone who was called in at the last moment, Scott Wilson of the Borders Hammer Academy had a great day and finished second overall in the shot putt – a superb result considering the short time for practice he had managed to put in with Alan Bertram.

For the under 15s it was mixed results with the girls finishing fourth overall despite some great running and in particular Rachel Smith stood out as an athlete with potential – finishing well up in the 4-lap race and the Speed Bounce events.

The highlight of the day was the result of the under-15 boys who finished in second place overall and, as a result, booked their place in the Scottish finals. The team of David Bonnar, Keiran Crews, Paul Ferguson, Craig Frater, Alan McLean and Ross Patterson thoroughly deserved their place in the final with great results both individually and in the team relays.

As icing on the cake, Alan McLean of Lauderdale Limpers was named best overall athlete on the day and Keiran Crews of Gala Harriers was in joint second-place. Enormous thanks and congratulations to all the athletes for their efforts on the day; to the parents for their support and to all the coaches involved in the preparation and guidance during the event.

The four teams were sponsored by the Scottish Borders Council and the Sports Development Unit and kept fed and fuelled by generous support from Tesco. Next stop for the under-15 boys – the final in Dundee on the 24th February!

Posted on Monday, February 5th, 2007 at 7:18 pm and is filed under Race Reports.
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