Juniors set the standard
May 15th, 2007Gala Harriers athletes had a busy weekend with competition venues in Glasgow, Penicuik and Ben Lomond. There were senior athletes competing in the Ben Lomond hill race and Penicuik 10 road race.
Fergus Johnston, still with the Paris marathon in his legs made a good start to the race but fatigue took it’s toll and he finished in 45th place in a time of 1hr 29mins 57secs.
In the hilly 10k event in Penicuik Magnus Inglis and Kate Jenkins battled their way round in times of 39mins 34secs and 40mins 27secs respectively. Jenkins finished in second place in the ladies race.
It was the Gala juniors who took the plaudits over the weekend winning no less than 4 medals between them. On Saturday at the Scottish Junior hill running championships on the slopes of Ben Lomond, Alice Haining retained the U14 championships with a commanding victory. Only 3 boys managed to keep ahead of the Gala youngster as she won the girls race by a huge margin in a time of 15mins 28secs.
The following day at Scotstoun in Glasgow 3 more junior athletes took part in the East of Scotland track and field championships. First up for Gala was Demi Yorke competing in her first championships. She was one of the youngest competitors in the long jump and managed to make the final 3 jumps. Leaping out to 4m22cm placed her in second earning her a silver medal for her efforts.
The next event, the 100metres, saw 3 Harriers competing. In the U13 event Demi Yorke and Martha Douglas, also competing in the championships for the first time, were lined up against each other in the heats. Running into a stiff head wind Yorke made it to the final in 14.39secs with Douglas just missing out but running 14.95secs.
In the U15 Emily Douglas made it through the heats in 13.86secs. In the finals the Gala youngsters showed real determination with Yorke coming through to win another silver medal in 14.21secs. Douglas ran well into an ever increasing wind to finish in 4th place.
In the 200metres however Douglas picked up the pace and again qualified for the final. Running in lane 5 in the final, Emily got off to a good start and came off the bend well and sped down the home straight to finish in 3rd place picking up a bronze medal, her first championship medal. Despite a 4mps headwind Emily still managed to run 28.00secs.
This was an excellent weekend for the Gala Harriers junior section and for the first time picking up medals in the track & field events. Thanks to the hard work of the coaches and parents, a number of athletes are athletes are competing in a variety of events and showing some significant improvements. Hopefully over the Summer more youngsters from the Harriers will participate in competitions.
