Arelaygood performance
An East Kilbride Athletic Club trio celebrated a brilliant bronze last week at the Scottish Primary Schools’Road Relay Championships.
Ella Comiskey, Olivia Carlin and Cara Gilbride, who were all competing for St Hilary’s Primary, each completed one mile of the three-mile course at Grangemouth to claim a first-ever medal for their school at this event.
This is always a very high level of competition with the very best athletes from primary six and seven taking part from all over Scotland.
Last year the girls just missed out on a medal after finishing fifth, but they surpassed that performance with ease to medal.
Ella produced an outstanding first leg where she managed to come home in second place after pacing the race perfectly. This set up Olivia and she worked hard to maintain her position in the field on the penultimate leg.
She handed the baton to her colleague Cara and, after a fantastic track season for EKAC, she set off round the course trying to maintain the team’s position in second place.
Despite Cara’s best efforts she was chased down and passed by the Priorsford Primary athlete, who ran the fastest leg of the race.
A gutsy run from Cara kept her in a medal position as she entered the stadium and she finished strongly to bring the team home in third position.
It was a fantastic achievement for the girls and their delighted coach Luke Kirwan said :“I’m so happy for them winning bronze – this is what makes coaching them after school all worth it.”