Gold medals galore for Elgin High’s Holly Whittaker at Scottish Schools Athletics Championships while Elgin Academy, Lossie High and Keith Grammar pupils
Elgin High pupil Holly Whittaker led a great effort by Moray athletes at the Scottish Schools Championships in Grangemouth.
Holly joined fellow Elgin High pupil Gemma Forgie in competing at the pentathlon competition, a week before the national schools track and field championships.
Already a multiple Scottish champion and record holder, Holly (15) took the pentathlon gold medal in the under-17 age group.
On a hot day at the Grangemouth stadium, she produced a personal best time of 11.40 seconds in the 80 metres hurdles to retain her number one place in the UK rankings for the event.
Another personal best came in the long jump with a mighty leap of 5.77 metres, which is the second best distance of any Scottish woman in 2024 so far.
In the under-15 pentathlon, Gemma was involved in a very tough field of 40 athletes but still managed to finish fifth, helped by a new PB in the high jump, 75m hurdles and shot putt.
Both girls were among a group of nine Moray athletes who returned to Grangemouth the following week for two days of competitions in the Scottish schools track and field championships.
Holly Whittaker again produced great form in the under-17s, winning both the 80m hurdles and the long jump (5.55m), while a personal best run of 25.16 seconds in the 200m was enough to secure the bronze medal.
In addition to her three gold and one bronze medals, Holly picked up the trophy for best female hurdler across all age groups for the third year running.
Gemma Forgie won silver in the long jump (5.11m) and was fifth in the 75m hurdles.
In the same age group, Elgin Academy’s Anna Reid came so close to a national gold in the high jump after clearing 1.64 metres, but was nudged into the silver medal position on a count back after the eventual winner matched her best effort.
Fellow Academy pupil Lauren Abbott raced her way to a silver medal in the 300 metres (41.71) and just missed out on the 200m final after a strong run in the semi-finals.
Lossie High and Keith Grammar also had Scottish schools champions in their ranks.
Andrew Lumsden came up trumps for the Lossiemouth school, winning the men’s under-17 triple jump and retaining his number one ranking in Scotland with a superb personal best jump of 13.08 metres.
He also finished fifth in the long jump (5.80).
Keith Grammar’s Tom Palmer was a three-time medallist in the under-20s including a gold in the 400m hurdles in a time of 59.57 seconds.
Two personal best times in the 110m hurdles (15.72) for silver and 2000m steeplechase (7:07.07) for bronze completed his medal haul.
Buckie High pupil Roy Taylor reached the final of the under-20 800m, finishing sixth (1:59.66).
Two more Elgin High pupils just missed out on a podium place.
Under-17 Lexi Grant came up with a triple jump effort of 10.42m to earn fourth place, and was seventh in the long jump (4.93m).
Fourth place was also the outcome for Ruaridh Mackenzie-Copp in the under-17s javelin (25.05m) while a personal best in the 400m (55.86) landed ninth position.
Elgin Academy’s Quentin Fowlie produced a personal best in the under-15 200m heat (27.50) and threw 7.97m in the shot putt.
