ATHLETICS SUPREMO PRAISES HABBIES DUO THAT’S WHAT I CALL A DREAM TEAM

Scottish Athletics chief Mark Munro has paid tribute to Habbies star Jemma Reekie and her coach.

Writing in his monthly blog, Munro highlighted the success of Kilbarchan AAC’s middle distance runner, who is coached by Andy Young.

Following a period of sustained success for all involved in athletics in Scotland, he also focused on the work put in behind the scenes by athletes’ coaches.

He said: “It has been a quite stunning period for athletics in Scotland recently – across various disciplines and age groups.

“We’ve had national records falling on the track – four senior national records at the last count – to Eilish McColgan at 5000m; Heather Paton for

100m hurdles; Andy Butchart at 5000m and Beth Dobbin at

200m) – as well as native and under-20 records in combined events.

“Jacob Adkin won the European Mountain Running gold and Jemma Reekie clinched an unprecedented 800m-1500m double at the Euro under-23s. Andy Douglas leads the World Mountain Running World Cup Series with three wins from four.

“Eight athletes performed s superbly at the Euro U-20s, with all s six individual event athletes reaching t their finals.

“When you see the performances l likes these across the board, it is e essential that we recognise how i important Scottish coaches are to t the system we are trying to build on in this country. We must respect the wonderful job that they are doing and for the most part, the majority are unpaid.”