Holly finishes season on a high

Holly, a pupil at Kilsyth Academy, competes in multi events and trains at East Kilbride Club Whitemoss Amatuer Athletic club coached by Iain McEwan.

In December 2013 Holly, of South Dumbreck Road, Kilsyth, was selected for the Scottish Schools International Combined events squad, competing against England Ireland and Wales.

This was Holly’s first time representing Scottish Schools and she helped her team secure silver, totalling her own individual points score of 3245 setting a new Scottish under 15 National Indoor Pentathlon record.

At The Scottish Indoor Track and Field Championships in January 2014 Holly went on to become the Scottish under 16 Indoor Long Jump Champion with a winning jump of 5.26 metres.

Holly also secured silver in the 300m sprint at the same competition. With a new personal best of 41.78 seconds Holly did enough to break the existing under 15 Scottish National 300m indoor record of 41.94 held for 14 years by Gemma Nicol.

Not yet done, in March, Holly went on to compete at both Scottish and English Indoor National Combined Events Championships.

At the Emirates arena in Glasgow Holly set a new record becoming the Scottish Indoor under 16 Pentathlon champion with total points score of 3268.

The following week Holly had her eyes fixed on the English Combined Events Indoor Championship held at Sheffield English Institute of Sport.

This National competition attracts the best young combined event athletes from across the UK. Having secured bronze at the English Outdoor Combined events championships in Stoke the previous year English athletics had identified Holly as a serious contender. However with a field of 46 athletes vying for a podium place it was anything but predictable.

Holly got off to a blazing start securing joint fastest time in the 60m hurdles of 9.26 secs. Next in the Long jump Holly leapt a massive PB of 5.48m smashing the Scottish Indoor under 15 Long jump record of 5.39 metres held since 1998 and put her straight to the top of UK ranking. With strong competition, others soon gained on Holly following the high jump and shot putt, leaving Holly in third place trailing the leader by 80 points going into the final event the 800m.

Holly was in a confident mood going into this final race as 800m is one of her strongest events. Holly set the pace and showed her dominance on the track as the first and second placed athletes desperately tried to hang on to their lead. Holly finished her 800m in a respectable 2.20 minutes, well ahead of the field, securing a total points score of 3361 140 points clear and being crowned Indoor under 15 English Combined Events Champion. The 3361 points beat her own Scottish record and places her fourth all time in UK rankings for under 15 Indoor Pentathlon.

Holly now back in training for the summer added: “I was just so happy to perform when it mattered most.”

As reward for her own hard work Holly is now looking forward to sitting back and enjoying the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games as her mum and dad Allison and Stephen have bought her tickets to watch the athletics.