The Shetland athletics team scooped 19 medals and 28 personal best performances across track and field events staged in Inverness last weekend. Thirty of Shetland’s athletes travelled to compete in the North Districts Athletics Championships and Under 20 and Senior Open Competition, which were spread over Friday evening and Saturday morning.

The team got off to a flying start on Friday evening with two gold, one silver and one bronze medal, together with a host of personal best performances.

The 200m heats saw Under 13 Girls Roma Robertson and Eva Thompson placed in the same heat, with Roma finishing in 2nd place with a time of 31.18 seconds and Eva in 3rd with a time of 32.19 seconds. The wind reading was -2.1 m/s which made the home straight a difficult task. Both girls progressed to the final with these great performances.

In the Under 13 Boys category, Max Finnie finished in 3rd place in his heat in a time of 32.64 seconds and a head wind of -1.5 m/s. This super race saw Max also progress to the final.

In the Under 15 Boys category, Jack Baronet and Lewis Williamson also had to face the head wind, this time at -1.9 m/s. Both boys took on the challenge and finished in 2nd and 3rd places in their heat. Jack’s time was 27.18 seconds and Lewis’s 27.71 seconds. Both progressed through to the final.

When the finals time came, Roma and Eva had some of the worst wind conditions of the evening with a headwind of -3.5 m/s. Despite this the girls had a wonderful race with Roma pulling through the field as she came off the bend and into the straight, finishing in 3rd place and earning a bronze medal. Eva also ran strongly and snatched 4th place despite being challenged by other athletes. The girls’ times were 31.68 seconds and 32.58 seconds respectively.

Max experienced a slight injury following the completion of the heat, but ran well in the final to finish in 7th place in 34.45 seconds, with another headwind, this time the reading was -2.2 m/s.

Jack and Lewis were next to compete. Better wind conditions made a brief appearance with the race reading of a -1.0 m/s head wind. Both boys ran extremely well, with Jack just being denied a medal on the line, finishing in 4th place with a time of 27.57 seconds. Lewis was also involved in the close finishers, coming home in 6th place in a time of 27.97 seconds.

The 800m runners faced straight finals but the same difficult windy conditions. Despite this, Under 15 Boy Alisher Abuladze ran very well, sprint finishing from more than 200m out and overtaking runners on his way to take the silver medal in a time of 2 minutes 27.76 seconds. Lewis Black was close behind having led the pack for the first 300m, finishing in 4th in a time of 2 minutes 31.66.

In the Under 15 Girls race, Abby Harcus showed she is back on form with a time of 2:43:41, finishing strongly in a tough pool of competitors.

Not to be outdone, the field eventers had a great night, with two gold medals coming in the Triple Jump event. In the Under 15 Boys, Max Smith jumped a great 8.90m to take gold and become the North Districts Champions and Abbie Taylor leapt to 10.47m to take her gold medal and championship title. Also competing, in the Senior Women’s category and Open Competition, was Loni Wiseman who posted a credible 10.21m.

Long jumper Stuart Bain began a return to previous form with his furthest jump recorded at 6.45m in the Open Competition.

Saturday saw the stream of medals continue for the Shetland team throughout the age groups.

The Under 13 Girls sprinters, Roma and Eva were back on the track in the 100m, with better wind conditions than the previous evening. Eva came in 3rd place in her heat and Roma won her heat, both girls qualifying for the final with times of 15.19 and 15.27 seconds respectively. A tough field in the final saw Roma take 6th place in a time of 15.15 seconds and Eva 8th in a time of 15.28 seconds.

In the field events, fellow Under 13 Girls team mate Holly Gray had a remarkable day, becoming North District U13 Girls Champion in the javelin with a new personal best throw of 18.89m and taking the silver medal in the shot putt with another personal best distance, 6.85m. Winnie Johnston took 6th place in the shot with a personal best of 5.00m and Shaye Isbister took 7th place with a distance of 4.85m. Over in the long jump, Winnie made the final and finished in 8th place with a personal best of 3.69m, with Roma not far behind in 11th with 3.44m and Eva in 21st with 2.79m.

The Under 15 Girls track events saw Caitlin Anderson take the bronze medal with her new personal best time of 5 minutes 25.56 seconds in the 1500m and Abby Harcus take 5th place in the 800m with a time of 2 minutes 43.41 seconds. Daisy Quinnell progressed to the 100m final after taking second place in her heat with a time of 14.81 seconds, which was a new best time. She subsequently beat that time and recorded 14.32 seconds to take 6th place in a fast final.

In the field Morgan Taylor came close to her personal best, taking the silver medal in the high jump with a clearance at 1.28m and 4th place in the long jump with a personal best of 3.85m. Jessie Tait was also in the long jump field and took 5th place with a personal best distance of 3.83m. Keira Balance finished in a strong 9th place, just a few centimetres behind with 3.71m. In the shot, Jessie too a silver medal with a throw of 6.51m and Daisy finished in 7th place with 5.34m.

The Under 17 Women’s track races saw both Lauren Grains and Abbie Taylor progress from their 100m heats to the final, with Abbie finishing in 3rd place and Lauren 4th in times of 14.03 seconds and 14.12 seconds respectively. In the final, Lauren finished in 6th place in 13.97 seconds and Abbie was 7th in 14.01 seconds.

Abbie continued to triumph in the field, picking up a bronze in the long jump with a new personal best distance of 4.56m. Lauren also jumped very well in the long jump to finish only a few centimetres back in 4th place with a distance of 4.34m. Ruth Anderson made her return to throwing with two silver medal performances, throwing a new personal best in the javelin of 22.90m and 8.55m in the shot.

In the Under 13 Boys field events, Ross Drakeford took silver in the long jump with a new personal best of 3.72m and went on to take bronze in the shot putt with a throw of 5.83m, which was also a new personal best distance. Max Finnie jumped really well in the high jump and narrowly missed a 4cm personal best, finishing in bronze medal position with his 1.19m clearance.

In the Under 15 Boys, Jack and Lewis made a return to the sprints, taking first and second places in their 100m heat in times of 13.55 seconds and 13.76 seconds respectively. Both boys bettered their times in the final, with Jack taking the bronze medal in a time of 13.44 seconds and Lewis 4th place in a time of 13.59 seconds. In a very tough 1500m field, both Cameron Black and Jake Crossan ran new personal best times to finish in 4th place and 6th place respectively. Cameron’s time was 5 minutes 16.58 seconds and Jake’s time was 5 minutes 24.45 seconds.

Over in the field, the Under 15 Boys’s success continued with Alex Christie becoming the North District javelin Champion with a new personal best distance of 27.69m and Isaiah Christie taking the silver medal in a new personal best distance of 25.18m. Both boys also threw well in the shot to finish in 4th and 5th places with respective distances of 6.46m and 5.83m. Also becoming North Districts Champion was Ryan Drakeford who jumped an incredible 8cm higher than his previous best

height to clear 1.48m. Ryan also joined Alisher, Max Smith and Callum Morrison in the long jump with Alisher taking the silver medal with a new personal best jump of 5.06m and Ryan taking 4th place in 4.39m. Max also delivered a personal best jump to finish in 9th place with 4.12m, just 1 cm ahead of Callum in 10th with 4.11m.

The final results in the Open Competition were for Stuart Bain who recorded a time of 12.21 seconds in the 100m and Connor McDonald in the shot. Connor demonstrated a return to form following an extended period of injury rehab with a seasons best of 12.98m, equalling his lifetime best.

Shetland Amateur Athletics Club Chairwoman, Elaine Park commented, “This has been a fantastic return to away competition and is the first time we have travelled as a team since 2019. The athletes have really enjoyed the experience and have all done themselves proud over the competition. The buzz from such a great trip has already flowed through into this week’s training, which is wonderful to see and the number of new personal bests, medals and championship titles has really topped off a brilliant weekend. The Club would like to thank everyone who has made this trip possible and give a special thanks to the staff at Northlink who helped us with our booking and provided valuable sponsorship.”