Katie’s prize finish to the athletics season
Teenage athlete Katie Burr is looking ahead to 2018 after a scintillating season where she won gold and silver medals at national events - and earned her first international vest.
The 14 year-old Balfron High School pupil and Victoria Park City of Glasgow AC athlete finished her debut year in the Under 15 age group with a spectacular performance in the Schools International Indoor Pentathlon against England, Ireland and Wales.
She was the youngest in the competition and making her international debut but stunned everyone by finishing sixth overall in the Under 16 age group with a score of 3236 points, helping the Scottish team to win the silver medal with an individual points total which puts her second in the Scottish All Time list for the Under 15 Girls Indoor Pentathlon.
The performance was the icing on the cake for the youngster who started the season indoors by winning silver in the Scottish Athletics Pentathlon Championships with 2906 points.
A week later she travelled to Sheffield to compete in the English Athletics Pentathlon Championships, finishing a credible eighth position with 2950 points against girls a year older.
Her outdoor season started with the Scottish Schools Pentathlon Championship where she won gold in the Under 14 age group with four personal bests, giving her 3170 to beat the previous year’s record by 350 points.
This achievement was acknowledged by Balfron High School with Katie receiving the Murdoch Award.
July started with the Scottish Athletics Pentathlon Championships where she won silver, accumulating 3096 points - a mere two points behind the winner.
And two weeks later she travelled to Oxford to compete in the English South East Counties Championship, where she won the event with 3064 points as well as meeting athletics legends Daley Thompson and David Hemery.
In August, Katie took part in a hexathlon at the English Combined Events Championship in Manchester which featured the five pentathlon events plus the javelin over two days of competition and just missed out on a medal with a fourth place finish.
In the last major outdoor competition of the season at the Scottish Championships, Katie won the silver in the 75m hurdles.
She is now looking forward to next season with the help of Scottish-based girls technical sportswear company Everactiv after a winter of hard training.