National silver medals for Team East Lothian's Cameron Steven, Kate Johnstone and Elizabeth Musgrove.
There were a series of great performances by East Lothian athletes at the Scottish Schools Athletics Association Indoor Championship last Wednesday and Thursday at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena, which culminated with two silver medals for East Lothian. It was Team East Lothian’s Cameron Steven (Dunbar Grammar) and Kate Johnstone (Portobello HS) who returned home with the silverware from the School Championships as a cohort of 11 of East Lothian’s finest tested themselves against Scotland’s best .
The first medal of the Championships went to Kate Johnstone in the Under-16 Girls 60m. Kate started her Schools debut by recording a new personal best in the heat of her 60m at 7.99s. After winning her heat, Kate went on to claim her semi final in another good performance of 8.07s and in a very competitive final claimed a fine silver medal in a blanket finish with another consistent time of 8.03s.
Building on his bronze medal in the Under-16 Boys competition last year, Cameron Steven upgraded his medal to silver for 2015 in the more competitive Over-16 Boys category. Cameron is a member of East Lothian's Performance Athltes in Schools Programme (PAiS) and Team East Lothian. In a display of fine tactics in the 800m, Cameron followed the Scottish record holder Ben Greenwood through the first 400m and settled into the pace positioning himself in the rest of the pack. At the bell there was a surge of pace and Cameron sticking with the pack gave another surge with 100m to go to put himself on the podium and then into silver medal position by 0.01s! Cameron won his heat in 2:01.17, then dipped under the 2 minute barrier behind Ben Greenwood in the final for 1.59.85 .
There was huge disappointment for Imogen Wilson (Dunbar Grammar) in the final of the Over-16 Girls 300m, when with 100m to go, looking poised to hit the podium, Imogen got clipped by another athlete and was thrown off track and was unable to finish the race. Imogen record a series of indoor bests, 43.31s in the heats and a fine run in the semi final for 42.88s. Despite the disappointment in the final, Imogen recorded a fine personal best in the semi final and will be looking to be competitive over the same distance at the scottishathletics Age Group Championships this weekend.
There was also a series of personal bests from Catriona McPheat (Dunbar Grammar) in the Under-16 Girls 200m (29.27), 300m (45.94s), with a seasons best in the 800m. There were also some great performances against tough competition from Rachel Watson (Knox Academy) in 300m 45.92s (O16G), Charlie Hamilton (Dunbar Grammar) in 60m Hurdles 11.97s (U16B), Leona Boardman (Knox Academy) in Long Jump 3.94m (U16G), Rosa Gally (Portobello HS) in 800m 2:48.81 (U16G), Eddi Armstrong (Dunbar Grammar) in 60m 8.79s (U16G), Gemma Bolton (Dunbar Grammar) in 60m 8.82s and Long Jump 4.25m (O16G) and Cameron Johnstone (Portobello HS) in 60m 7.91s (O16B).
Following on from the schools championships, the Scottish University & College Athletics Championships took the stage at weekend. It proved to be a good weekend for Team East Lothian's Elizabeth Musgrove at the University Championships, stepping down to the shorter one lap distance of 200m. Musgrove claimed silver behind Glasgow Caledonia's Chloe Lambert in a new season's best time of 25.46s. The former North Beriwck HS and Scottish Schools Champion now studies at University of Edinburgh and joined her UoE team mates for the 4x400m relay where the team won gold.
