Athletics: Young Kilmarnock Harriers in running for medals

Nov 27 2009 by Lizzie Struthers, Kilmarnock Standard

CORY O’Hara is one of the young athletic stars rising through the ranks of Kilmarnock Harriers.

The 14-year-old is the current holder of the Junior Scottish Long Jump title, and won a silver medal at the Junior Scottish Triple Jump championships.

His amazing season saw him increase his long jump personal best to 5m 92cm, taking him to number two in the national rankings.

Cory, who has been a member of Kilmarnock Harriers for more than seven years, has the ambition and potential to be representing Scotland at Commonwealth level in 2014 and 2018.

Jim Goldie, a Harriers youth coach, said: “In light of his success in the past twelve months, Cory is now an excellent role model to many of the young athletes coming through the club structure.

“In this role, Cory has displayed many of the characteristics that make him one of the best athletes in the country, and his dedication to the sport is evident for all to see.”

Jim added: “The club has a number of excellent athletes coming through the junior section and these athletes display a high level of fitness and dedication to their sport.”

THE young Harriers girls have competed well throughout the summer and into the autumn.

Eve Kerr and Bethany Ross both lifted Ayrshire Schools’ cross-country titles in September with Fern Wales and Bronagh Wishart also lifting individual medals in their respective age groups.

Fern Wales, Lorne Kerr and Amy Mole were joined by many of the club’s athletes to finish inside the top 10 at the Ayrshire Schools with Fern and Amy lifting medals in their age group.

In the boys’ events, Roy Shankland was in stunning form lifting a silver medal behind UK Schools champion Findlay Rae.

Luke McGill, Cameron Mackie, Ross Connelly and Grant Beattie showed their class as they all finished inside the top five at the Ayrshire Schools.

During the summer, Bethany also finished fourth in the Scottish Closed Track and Field Championships in May and also won the Ayrshire Schools 800m title in a new record time. Bethany went on to set a new personal best of 2 min 21 secs – the fastest time in Ayrshire this year by a female athlete.

Eve Kerr was another record breaker at Ayrshire level when she dominated an excellent 1500m race at Ayr’s Dam Park to smash the record.

Although suffering from an injury for the past couple of months, Amanda Humes has shown some great form during the summer and was dominating the 800m race at under-15 level.

Brogan Wallace has continued to develop well and has now moved to Glasgow School of Sport where she is able to mix her academic work with sport. She has started the winter well running the fastest leg at the Ayrshire Cross Country Relays and at the weekend winning the Kilmarnock Cross Country.

For the fifth year in a row, the young females won every age group from under 11 through to senior at the Ayrshire Cross Country Relay Championships. There was also success for the other teams with the club lifting bronze in each of the races as well.

The young male athletes also competed well at these championships taking silver in all age groups, apart from the under -7 age group where the boys won the event comfortably.

EAST Ayrshire Council is pushing ahead with a new £5.6 million state-of-the-art athletics stadium at Scott Ellis in Kilmarnock.

The stadium will be a massive boost for the Harriers and give the young athletes a new focus for their sport.

They will have a world class training facility and this in turn will ensure the young athletes success will continue for years to come.

Donald McIntosh, a Harriers coach and chairman of East Ayrshire Athletics Partnership said: “Having this facility for use in helping the young athletes get fit is excellent, we are all looking to help the young people of East Ayrshire enjoy their athletics and developing their skills”

Jamie McDonald, Scottish Athletics development manager, said: “This new development in East Ayrshire gives the sport of athletics in the West of Scotland a real boost.”

Kilmarnock Harriers has received national sponsorship from Lloyds Banking Group.

The funding is part of a national strategy being developed through Scottish Athletics, where clubs that meet a set of standards in relation to organisation, competition and coaching receive funding to help them develop locally.

Kilmarnock Harriers are one of only eight clubs in Scotland being supported by the project.