The first sport to compete in this year’s junior inter-county was Athletics, with thirty-one young athletes making up this year’s team battling for the Ian Williamson Trophy, jointly captained by Ben Wagstaff and Judy Hamer.

Following the now traditional walk-on introduction, the team go straight to work with great performances in the 1500m.  Reece Black won the boys race in 4:25:11 (PB) and Cameron Read came in 4th in 5:04:16 (PB).  In the girls race, Layla Todd took first place in 5:04:52 and Caitlin Anderson took 3rd place in 5:23:22 (PB).

The next set of events was the throws, with the boys taking on the javelin and the girls the shot.  Ben Wagstaff added almost 4m to his previous best, throwing 37.04m, narrowly missing out on 1st place.  Ross Dinwoodie also added to his best, taking 4th with 31.47m.  In the shot, Ruth Anderson took 2nd place with 7.33m (PB) and Michaela Christie took 4th with 6.48m (PB).

On the track, the 200m was next with George Robeston fighting right to the line in the boys race to take 2nd in 23.40 seconds (PB) and Jamie Petrie taking 4th in 25.61 seconds.  For the girls, it was a tough race but both Abbie Taylor and Isla Tindall performed personal best times with 28.60 seconds (3rd) and 29.02 seconds (4th) respectively.

The completion of the throwing events came next with Ben and Ross in the shot.  Both threw personal bests with Ross taking 2ndwith 10.55m and Ben 4th with 9.97m.  In the girls javelin, Sonja Kurtz took 3rd with 28.12m (PB) and Tahlia Leslie took 4th with 23.83m (PB).

The 800m saw Murray Todd and Alisher Abuladze both produce personal bests with Murray taking 2nd place in 2:10:34 and Alisher 4th place in 2:20:42.  In the girls race, Layla gave her all for her personal best of 2:25:06 and 2nd place and Abby Harcus took 4th place, also with a new personal best of 2:39:47.

The 100m saw George making sure of a win with a new personal best of 11.77 seconds, with Ross rounding off his third event of the day with a personal best of 12.73 seconds to take 4th.  In the girls race, both Shetland lasses recorded personal bests of 13.40 seconds with Abbie given 3rd place on a photo finish to Sadie Fox.

The first set of jumping events got underway with the boys long jump.  Alisher took 3rd place, just shy of his personal best with a jump of 5.05m and Bobby Nicolson took 4th with 5.02m (PB).  In the girls high jump, Morgan Taylor recorded a new personal best of 1.30m and Ellie Bissett also jumped a new PB with 1.25m, taking 3rd and 4th places respectively.

The 400m was the last of the individual track events and really difficult races for both the boys and girls. In the boys race Murray took 3rd place in 57.58 seconds (PB) and Kian Redman took 4th in 59.87 seconds (PB).  The girls pairing of Eve Fraser and Mia Kirkness put in a gutsy performance, taking 3rd and 4th in times of 69.22 seconds and 70.75 seconds, both new personal best times.

The final field events were the boys high jump and girls long jump.  Finn Regan took the high jump win for the boys with a personal best equalling 1.70m and Ryan Drakeford took 4th with a height of 1.40m.  In the girls long jump Maddie Smith won the event with a jump of 4.71m and Abbie took 3rd with a personal best of 4.59m.

The relays were very exciting, with the boys (Jamie, George, Ross, Finn) just pipped into 2nd place and the girls (Sanna Forsyth, Sadie, Isla, Abbie) also coming home in second place, both having produced solid clean baton exchanges.

The team was ably supported throughout the day by our reserves – Judy, Lois Phillips and David Campbell.

Shetland Coach Elaine Park commented, “The overall score of 38 points for the Shetland team to Orkney’s 59 did not tell the story of the day by any means.  Of the 36 individual events, our athletes recorded 31 personal bests.  That is truly phenomenal and demonstrates the effort that was put in by the whole team much better than the final points tally.  All the coaches are so proud of the team and are absolutely delighted with the grit and determination they displayed.  We could not have asked for more.  The team would like to thank their sponsors Westside Electrical for their support and providing the team with kit for the return of the JIC as well as everyone who made the weekend possible.”