International Athletics Match event is stomping group for East Lothian's finest and Team East Lothian relay teams.
It was another action packed weekend at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena with the Sainsbury’s Glasgow International Match seeing the best of Scotland take on teams from Great Britain & Northern Ireland, France and Germany.
East Lothian’s Sarah Warnock was up against the European Champion, Eloyse Lesueur, and Commonwealth medallist, Jazmin Sawyers in the long jump. Warnock finished fourth with a best jump of 6.18m – just off her season opener. Team East Lothian member’s Jamie Bowie and Patrick Swan were also in action, Bowie in the individual 400m and Swan anchoring the Scottish team in the 4x400m relay. Bowie pleased the 4,000 strong home crowd to steal victory from GB&NI captain and fellow World Silver Medallist Conrad Williams in a tussle to the finish line. The Scottish quartet, anchored by Swan, finished third in the Men’s 4x400m before the French quartet were disqualified for a lane infringement, which saw the Scots upgraded to second place. The disqualification of the French team in the relay proved significant as the vital deduction of points meant the Marseilles was put on pause and the points recounted to put the Germans as victors of the Glasgow International Match!
The Glasgow International also was a special day for a group of junior athletes from Team East Lothian, who mixed it up with the international athletes at the Glasgow International Match, competing at the National Indoor Junior Relay Championships. Four teams of county’s best Under-15 and Under-17 athletes from Team East Lothlian lined up as part of the pre-event to the main International Match and competed admirably, before sitting down as spectators watching local internationalists and world class athletes compete in the same arena.
The Under-15 Boys team of Cameron Smith, Evan Friery, Charlie Hamilton and Chris Stewart finished in 4th in their heats of the 4x200m relay, Eloise Gray, Leona Boardman, Beth Douglas and Catriona McPheat placed a credible 3rd in the heats of the Under 15 Girls competition. Jordan Robbins, Ben Sutton, Joseph Osman and Cameron Steven also placed 4th in the Under-17 Men’s competition, with the U17 Women’s team of Kate Johnstone, Tarryn Wood, Jodie Russell and Imogen Wilson managing a credible third place. It was a fantastic experience for the young athletes to compete as part of the International Match and although the Team East Lothian relay teams didn’t quiet manage to progress to the finals, there was some medal success for East Lothian athletes bearing their Edinburgh AC vests – with Owen Ashall (North Berwick) claiming a bronze medal in the Under-13 Boys 4x200m relay and Cameron Tait (Longniddry) claiming bronze in the Under-15 Boys event.
From Super-Saturday International to SuperTeams Sunday, it was the turn of the county’s younger athletes to take to the boards at the Emirates Arena on Sunday for the scottishathletics SuperTeam competition. Haddington East Lothian Pacemakers had a great sixth place finish in the girls competition with Musselburgh & District’s A team finishing 37th and their B team finishing 42nd against a field of sixty teams. In the boy’s team Musselburgh placed 12th, chased closely by local HELP team rivals in 15th.The B-teams had an equally close competition with Haddington finishing 37th and Musselburgh finishing 38th. It was a brilliant set of results from the two county teams fairing well against teams from across Scotland, and there were some standout individual performances with Fergus Stewart (MDAC) making the longest jump of the day in 4.06m, Hamish McNeill (MDAC) with the best shot putt of the day 6.66m and Abi Oshodi (HELP) the fastest girl of the day in the 60m with 9.09s, closely followed by Grace Brennan 9.15s.
