Halpin has a shot at new Scottish record
GATESHEAD teenager Jack Halpin continued his record-breaking form with a new Scottish under-15 shot put best performance at Aberdeen Sports Village.
Seven days prior to travelling across the Border, Halpin smashed Carl Myerscough’s long-standing North of England shot put record in Liverpool.
Last weekend he did likewise in the Scottish Championships.
Halpin lined up in Scotland in defence of his title and he showed he was in no way going to relinquish his crown as he winged the iron ball out to 14:87 metres – erasing Shettleston’s Allan Mackay’s 2004 figures of 14:79m from the record books.
That success came 24 hours after he had won the hammer contest with a new personal best of 53:35m.
The Alex Giles-coached athlete, who won the English Schools’ shot put title last month in Birmingham, tops the UK rankings in both events by a wide margin.
Halpin was not the only North East competitor to take their chance in Scotland, however, while it was a small number who made it on to the podium.
Morpeth brother and sister duo Edward and Jess Gardiner were both medallists.
Edward, competing in the under-13 section, finished in silver-medal position in both the discus (23:91m) and javelin (29:82m) – both of which were new pbs.
Older sister Jess did make it into second place in the under-15 age group with a new pb of 29:95m.
However, she missed out by a few centimetres to make third place in the hammer, her best effort of 35:50m just good enough for fourth spot.
North East under-20 discus champion, Georgia Kyle (Blaydon) completed the region’s medallists by finishing in third place with a throw of 36:01m.