Injury agony costs Bearsden teenager Jenna Hilditch national athletics title

An injury sustained just before her final event cost Bearsden teenager Jenna Hilditch the Scottish under-17 indoor pentathlon title.
Jenna Hilditch was leading the pentathlon when injury struck (pic: Bobby Gavin)Jenna Hilditch was leading the pentathlon when injury struck (pic: Bobby Gavin)
Jenna Hilditch was leading the pentathlon when injury struck (pic: Bobby Gavin)

The 15-year-old VP-Glasgow athlete had just cleared a new personal best high jump of 1.63 metres in the fourth of her five events to lead the competition at the Emirates Arena – part of the National Combined Events Championships – with one event to go.

But joy quickly turned to despair as she sustained a back injury which forced her to sit out the final event, the 800m metres, and dropped her from first to sixth in the competition standings.

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Jenna – who took a 60 metres hurdles and long jump title double at the Scottish Indoor Championships, also at the Emirates, earlier in January had opened with a shot putt of 9.30m.

She then ran the hurdles in 9.08 seconds, just outside her best, and posted a long jump of 5.19m.

Her high jump then gave her a tally for four events of 2,760 points and a 21-point lead over Dunfermline’s Darcie Black, whose 800m pb is considerably slower than Jenna’s and who was overtaken for gold by Inverness’s Stroma Fraser.