Top notch performance from Charlotte Clare yesterday at Grangemouth in the
Scottish Champs U15 Girls 800m, taking a well deserved bronze medal. She won
her heat comfortably, then in the final she sat off the early pace, as planned,
and as the pace steadied she moved through the field down the home straight to
challenge for the lead at the bell. She was widest of three abreast going round
that bend, but down the back she edged marginally ahead 250m out and with a 10m
gap back to 4th I thought blinkin’ heck she could win this. But the
other two responded to hold Charlotte out wide and off the final bend they had
gained 3 metres on her. It was now a fight for the bronze with two East
Kilbride runners closing in ominously. But Charlotte repelled their challenge
with a really gutsy run down the home straight to cross the line clear third in
2.23.45. No photo finishes needed this time. She was beaming afterwards - a
delight to see.
Ethan Elder ran a great race in the U15 Boys 1500. Well
positioned in a steadily run race, he went with the top three who made a fast
break with 500m to go. He committed to chasing a medal but then had
nothing left with 150m to go and faded to finish 7th. It was exactly the same
sort of race Laura Muir ran. He could have sat in and raced for a safe and
fairly distant 4th, but he really went for it and has another year
in that age-group. Craig Angus ran a 3-second PB in his heat, an excellent effort on a breezy day, but it wasn't quite enough to get to the final. Rumour has it he wants to try the steeplechase - but has anyone told him you have to go over the barriers? :-)
Michael Girdler is another who is still in the same age-group next year and he gave a good account of
himself in the U15 Boys 300m final coming 5th (1st U14) in 38.71, just outside
his PB on what by then was a pretty windy day.
Kobe Stevens had been laid low with sickness during the week and was a tad off his usual form which on any other day would have seen him through to the U20 Men's 800m final
No comments:
Post a Comment