Promoting Athletics in Orkney

Orkney Athletic and Running Club

4 days ago

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿SCOTTISH SCHOOLS OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS 2025 DAY 2🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

What a difference a day makes! From blue skies and temperatures of 22 degrees…to torrential rain, thunder and lightning! The competition was stopped for a while, due to safety concerns with the lightning, but it eventually dried and brightened up later.

Louise Gilmour was first out into the rain for her U15 long jump event. With a huge group of girls, there was a very long wait in between jumps and the conditions were very challenging for her first Scottish competition. Louise did well and jumped 3.84m.

Jenna Scott was jumping inside at the same time in the U20 age group. Having equalled her PB of 1.55m in Shetland last weekend, we knew Jenna was in great form. The last minute move inside unsettled the girls, and PBs were hard to come by, but we were delighted for Jenna when she picked up her first national medal of bronze🥉✨ with a first time clearance of 1.40m.

Next, Nuala Webb took to the track for her first 300m race. The 200m wasn’t open to the U15 girls at this event, so it was great to see Nuala take on a new distance. She ran 46.47.

Emily McArthur had her first run out of the competition in the U20 400m heats. She entirely dominated her heat and qualified comfortably for the final. Later in the day she was back out in the race for medals. Emily kept Annie McLean in reach for the first 300m and Annie just pulled away slightly in the last 100m, but Emily finished strongly to take silver🥈✨ in 58.12.

Elsie Hutchison was still buzzing from her PB in the 1500m the day before, when she stood on the line for her 800m. With some athlete withdrawals, it went to a straight final and it was a fast race. Elsie ran well and finished in 2:41.16.

Jamie Sutherland had the longest wait to get on the field. He and Max Linklater had to wait until the pool the rain had left was sponged off the runway. It was worth the wait for Jamie though, as he threw really well. He was very composed and confident and sent the javelin out over 45m for the third competition in a row, with a best on the day of 45.23m and a brilliant gold🥇✨. Max did well, too, taking silver🥈✨ with a throw of 36.41m, to add to his silver from high jump the day before.

For Emily, Jamie, Lucy and Max, this was their last Scottish Schools competition. All four athletes have performed outstandingly in their time at school, with all of them going on to represent Scotland. We are exceptionally proud of them and their achievements and we are grateful to everyone at OARC who has helped them on that journey, as well as the SSAA. Here are their medal records for Scottish Schools events:
⭐️Emily 🥈🥈and SIAB 2024
⭐️Jamie 🥇🥈and SIAB 2023
⭐️Lucy 🥇🥇🥉🥉and SIAB 2023
⭐️Max 🥇🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈and SIAB 2023

Thank you to all of the coaches who helped the athletes to prepare for this competition. Huge shout out to Mags for making the last minute journey down to support the athletes - it made all the difference. Thanks to Nicola for coming with us and encouraging everyone, and for keeping me awake on the journey! Thanks to our extremely generous sponsors, EDJ NorthLink FerrieshLink Ferries. Thank you to everyone at SSAA and all the volunteers for a great event in very challenging conditions. Thank you to Jess Glynne for the after party😉. Finally, thanks to our brilliant athletes for being fabulous!❤️ ... See MoreSee Less

Orkney Athletic and Running Club

4 days ago

🎶FINISHING OFF OUR SCOTTISH SCHOOLS TRIP IN STYLE🎶 ... See MoreSee Less