Events

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4 days ago

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Orkney Athletic and Running Club

4 days ago

OARC Garden Square Home Championships

It was a day for new talent to take the spotlight at the OARC Garden Square Home Championships on Sunday.

At the end of a long season and after a successful Island Games, many of Orkney’s top athletes were taking a well deserved rest, but our Championships were instead lit up by great performances from the club’s younger members, with two U11 records being broken and a large number of excellent performances in the U11 and U13 categories on a warm day at the Pickaquoy Centre.

With strong and climbing wind speeds, most of the day’s sprints were run in illegal winds, but the first record to fall was in the one of the few wind legal races of the day: the second heat of the U11 girls 75m, led home by Kallie Chloe Budge in a time of 11.81s, taking more than two tenths off the previous record of 12.03s. She went on to claim the gold medal in the final with a time of 11.92s shortly afterwards. Oliver Croy won the boy’s final in a time of 13.06s.

The second record went to Robyn Begley in the U11 girls high jump when she cleared 1.24m on her third attempt, breaking the previous 1.22m mark set in 2017 and winning gold in her age category by 19cm. Kian Brough and Brooke Learmonth won their respective boys and girls U13 high jump golds with PB jumps of their own - 1.30 and 1.28m respectively.

The day had kicked off with a 5000m where Craig Moar fought off Gary Ward to be the first finisher in a time of 17:25.10, before attention turned to the sprints. In the U13G 100m, Anna Stevenson and Brooke Learmonth comfortably won their respective heats, with Anna going on to claim the gold as both improved on their heat times in the final: Anna’s winning time was 14.56s. Max Tulloch (U17M) burnt up the track to win his 100m gold in 11.17, which would have taken almost half a second off the age group record - and seriously threatened the all time senior men’s record - but for the intervention of the wind gauge, whilst Tyler Budge (U13B) set a new PB of 14.52 in winning his category.

Conditions were not favourable for javelin throwers and distances were down on the competitors’ personal bests, but congratulations to Lucy Kenyon (U20W), Woody Monkman (U15B), Scarlett Hoque (U17W) and Annie Kenyon (U15G) on coming away with the golds in their respective categories. Throwing the shot proved a little easier, with PBs from Aimee McEwen and Finlay Curtis in winning the U11 girls and boys categories, and Sophie Shearer in winning the U13 girls.

In the 800m, Maisie Harcus led home the field of U11 girls in 3:11.45s, with Ruby Flett taking the silver and third and fourth placed Harper McLennan and Livvy Shearer both setting new PBs. On the boys side, Dara Glackin set a new PB of 2:53.43 in claiming gold in the U13B, as did Annie Bruce in the U15G with a time of 3:02.10. Over 150m, Kallie Chloe Budge claimed the girls gold and Oliver Croy the boys.

In the long jump pit, no fewer than 17 athletes recorded personal bests, with Sophie Shearer (U13G) crossing 4m for the first time with a jump of 4.05m and Kallie Chloe Budge adding her third gold of the day in the U11G, jumping 3.41m. The U13 boys were led by Tyler Budge (4.39m), whilst the biggest jump of the day came was 4.58m from Tristan Hoque in the U15B.

The 400m and 1500m races saw small fields, with Ryan Coltherd, Christopher Joos and Craig Moar taking their respective golds before the final track event of the day, the 200m. Max Tulloch again set the fastest mark, with his 23.14s being well inside his own U17 record, an illegal wind preventing his second record of the day. Sian Smith set the leading women’s time, with age category golds for Ryan Coltherd (Senior M), Millie Dennison (U20W), Finn Lyon (U15B), Nuala Webb (U15G), Davy Tulloch (U13B) and Sophie Shearer (U13G).

Thank you to all the athletes, supporters, volunteers and officials, as well as sponsors Garden Square, for contributing to a successful Championships rounding off a fantastic year on the track and in the field for athletics in Orkney.

We also had two athletes competing outwith Orkney over the weekend: on Saturday, Taylah Paterson ran the anchor leg for the winning Scotland team in the 4x100m at the Manchester International in her season closer, whilst today Calum Elder was up in Shetland at their Club Championships and threw a gold medal winning 13.86m.

Lots more photos of medal ceremonies to follow when I can work out how to download them properly! ... See MoreSee Less