Young runners storm to glory

Aug 29 2007 Wishaw Press

LAURA Livesey and Ross Hill won gold medals at the Scottish National Age-Group Athletics Championships at Grangemouth — and gave Law and District AAC extra cause for celebration as the club marks its 40th anniversary.

Laura triumphed in the under-15 200m and was only deprived of a double by a photo finish in the 100m, while Ross, of Carluke, won the under-13 800m.

Lynn Livesey, Laura’s twin sister, claimed bronze in the 100m, while fellow club member Laurie McKenna, competing for Glasgow School of Sport, won silver and bronze in the long jump and 100m respectively.

Their successes added a special golden touch to the Law athletes’ ruby anniversary celebrations as special events were held yesterday (Tuesday) to mark the club’s birthday, four decades to the day after it was founded on August 28, 1967.

Coltness High pupil Laura, the Scottish schools’ 100m champion, raced across the line in the final of the national championships in 12.85 seconds — exactly the same time as rival Emma Brown.

Expert analysts were called in and, after their deliberations, eventually awarded the gold medal to the Giffnock athlete, while Laura took silver with sister Lynn coming third in 13.11sec.

Laura then shrugged off that disappointment to produce Law’s performance of the day in the 200m, where the final saw her take on Scottish schools’ champion Marie-Claire Martin in what was the Wishaw runner’s sixth race of the day.

She thrilled her coaches and friends with an excellent display of impressive sprinting and sheer determination, claiming the national title and well-deserved gold medal by crossing the line in 26.71sec.

Former Morningside Primary pupil Ross then made it a double celebration for Law as he stormed to victory in under-13 800m, crossing the line at the end of the two-lap race in two minutes 21.15 seconds.

The club members also saw Laurie McKenna, competing in the colours of the specialist sports academy, win under-17 long jump silver and 100m bronze, while fellow club mate Lewis Nicholson also represented the school in 200m and shot put.

Club coach Pat Kelly said: “The medallists and all of our athletes who took part in the championships deserve a great pat on the back as they’ve worked really hard throughout the year to build up to their best for that day.

“Laura and Lynn have been absolutely fantastic all year and on every big occasion they pull these performances out of the bag; they do it time after time, particularly in the 200m where they really need to push to the line and they are getting there and winning it.

“Ross often worries before events but this year he has been training well and has become a lot more confident, and on the day he felt he could do it and would actually have been a bit disappointed not to have won.”

Kirstie McLeod, Law’s only female representative in the throws, also set two new personal bests. Despite her disappointment about being unable to compete in the sprints due to a hamstring injury, the under-17 athlete improved her performance in both discus and shot put.

The Carluke competitor narrowly missed out on bronze in the former event with a throw of 21.54m, while she came sixth in the shot with an effort of 8.47m.

Also setting two personal bests was under-15 athlete Thomas Lafferty, who ran the 400m in 59.20sec and threw 34.99m in the javelin, coming sixth in both events.

Braidhurst High pupil Craig Wellcoat also just missed out on bronze in the under-15 800m with a new personal best of 2:09.07, while club mate Jonathan Velu was one place behind, also improving his time to 2:10.45.

Also competing for Law AAC at the national championships were under-13s Ashleigh Anderson and Alice Fingland, under-15s Abby Currie, Chelcie Dalziel and Scott Murray, and under-17s Josh Ellwood, Bobby Hill, Ross MacDonald, Andrew Murray, Fiona Parkin and Alan Robb.