Promoting Athletics in Orkney

Orkney Athletic and Running Club

4 days ago

National U14, U16 & U20 Championships: Day One

Eight OARC athletes were competing today in Grangemouth, including three from Sanday and two from Westray, making for something of a North Isles Sports reunion!

Sanday’s Tristan Hoque had both his events today, clocking 13.04s over 100m and 26.09s over 200m, the latter inside his PB but one of the very few heats with an illegal wind rating over a day that was otherwise pretty mild.

Tristan’s twin sisters Saffron & Scarlett Hoque are both U18s but were competing up at U20 level today as two of three OARC representatives in a field of nine with Lucy Kenyon in the javelin. Lucy’s first throw was her best of the afternoon and indeed her best of the season, landing at 33.05m, enough for fourth place overall with the Hoque twins (who I think would have both been throwing a 600g javelin for the first time in competition) both exceeding their personal bests at the 500g weight: Saffron with 18.66m and Scarlett with 23.54m.

The last of our U16 athletes was Tyler Budge, who also had two events to balance. He started with the 300m, finishing in 40.85s just a tenth outside the U16 Orkney record in a very strong field. He had a break of just over an hour before the long jump, in which he jumped 5.28m twice and had one absolutely enormous leap out to 5.98m ruled out for a very narrow overstep on the board - had that been legal, it would have been enough for a share of third place overall. There were a lot of very promising performances throughout the day, but if I can highlight one non-OARC athlete, the long jump gold went to Joseph Lanahan of Shettleston Harriers who jumped a round seven (7) metres - at fourteen years old! Greg Rutherford’s senior GB record is ‘only’ 8.51m - certainly one to keep an eye on for the future!

Onto the remaining U20 competitors and Connor Harcus, who was running the 200m today ahead of the 100m in Aberdeen next weekend. Connor ran a season’s best of 23.08s in the heat, qualifying for the final as one of the fastest non-automatic qualifiers, where he lined up in an Island Games reunion against Tony Wesley (Western Isles, now Aberdeen AAC) and Kian Redman (Shetland). Kian once again swept to victory in 22.47s with Connor finishing fifth in an improved SB of 22.86s, showing that he’s returned from injury in some style.

Finally, we come to Elsie Hutchison and Emily McArthur in the U20 800m. Emily has been very busy this year with thirteen 800m races recorded on her Power of 10 entry already, while Elsie has been working her way back after picking up an injury at Scottish Schools which has kept her out of training for a couple of months at a key point in the season. In the heat, all the athletes seemed happy to take it a little bit easier knowing the final was the same afternoon leading to some slower times. Elsie finished in 2:29.30, a little outside her best but a good return in her first competitive race for two months. Emily tucked into a comfortable second place in 2:21.90 to progress to the final.

In the final, Emily was racing against some familiar faces who have been with her all the way through her age group journey, including Stornoway’s Abbie Stewart. Again the race went out slow with athletes preserving their legs for a quick finish with Abbie taking the win, Alice Mourao second and Emily third in 2:16:00🥉. Emily tells us she’s very happy with a bronze medal to finish her season on with a well deserved break needed after so many races over such a short period. This adds another age group medal to Emily’s trophy cabinet - which by this stage must be enough to make a magpie need a long lie down! We think it’s nine medals at age group championships indoor & out through the years - a testament to Emily’s commitment and hard work over a long period.

As folk will probably know, Emily is heading off to Stirling Uni at the start of September to join the Performance Endurance Group there and continue her athletics journey. This race marked the end of a long and incredibly successful time with Mags as her lead coach, but we certainly expect to see Emily in Orkney colours again - starting with next summer in the Faroes! It was also Lucy’s last age groups traveling from Orkney as she heads off to Uni in Glasgow - we’ll dig out some photos from along the journey in the next couple of weeks!

Tomorrow we'll see Elsie in the 1500m and Scarlett and Saffron in the shot put - Emily has wisely decided to call it a season there and will not be running in the 400m.

Closer to home this weekend, it was the Rousay Lap Half Marathon with a large number of OARC endurance runners making their way out to realise that they shouldn’t have moaned so much about the hills in the Sunnybank Half Marathon last weekend as it can always get worse - congratulations to everyone who took part, especially Joel Chaney and Vikki Budge who were first male and female finishers. I’ll try and work out who took part for the participation league in the week, but do let me know if you did! ... See MoreSee Less

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