Elgin Amateur Athletics Club duo impress at English National Championships in Birmingham's Alexander Stadium with Holly Whittaker adding English hurdles title to Scottish crown while Anna Reid just misses out on high jump podium
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Two Elgin Amateur Athletics Club teenagers continued their climb up the national rankings with spectacular performances at the English National Athletics Championships.
Holly Whittaker (14) added the English under-15 girls' 75 metres hurdles gold medal to the Scottish title she won the previous weekend in Aberdeen.
Elgin AAC team-mate and recently-crowned Scottish under-17 high jump champion Anna Reid (15) competed outside Scotland for the first time and very narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in the high jump in England.
Both girls made the 1000-mile round-trip the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, where last year's Commonwealth Games were held.
Reid is currently the joint-top performing high jumper in Scotland following her victory in the Scottish Championships.
Whittaker tops the Scottish ranks for her age group in both 75m hurdles and long jump and won the Scottish titles in both events a week before the English Championships.
Reid, who is currently ranked sixth in the overall Scottish rankings, produced a prodigious leap of 1.64 metres in the under-17 high jump and was just a whisker away from clearing 1.67m, a distance which would have landed her the bronze. She finished fourth in a pool of ten girls.
On the following day, Whittaker was one of 18 competitors who took part in the under-15 long jump which contained all of England’s top-five-ranked athletes, the top three Welsh in Wales, top two from Scotland and the Republic of Ireland number one long jumper.
The Elgin High pupil produced a personal best jump of 5.50 metres to secure fifth place, consolidate her number one Scottish ranking and put her ninth in the Scottish women's ranks - at the age of 14.
Whittaker then moved on to her number one event, the hurdles. She sped through to win her heat, then did the same in the final in a time of 11.21 seconds to claim the gold - her time is fourth-fastest in the Scottish all-time rankings.
It completed an incredible 2023 for the Elgin athlete as she has won English and Scottish titles both indoors and outdoors in the year, as well as the Scottish schools title.
Whittaker has competed in 24 sprint hurdles this year so far and has won every single one.
Just a few minutes after her final, Lois MacRae from Inverness Harriers claimed the U15 1500 metres title with a fantastic run in a time of 4 minutes 36.70 seconds, which gave the two of them a chance to enjoy their victories together.
