Saturday 20th February saw four of Fife AC’s U13 Fast Girls in action at the Emirates Stadium in Glasgow. They had some unfinished business from the previous weekend in the form of the National Junior 4x200m Relay Championships. Having qualified joint second in their heat and with the joint 5th fastest time overall of 2:01.69 they would now take on the other eleven qualifiers.
Qualifying Heat 13/02/2016
1st EDINBURGH AC 'A' 1:56.89 Q
2nd DUNFERMLINE TRACK & FIELD CLUB 'A' 2:01.69 Q
2nd Jt FIFE AC 'A' 2:01.69 q
Two semi-finals would reduce that number down to six and a place in this year’s Final just over an hour later. They all knew they would need to raise their game in terms of faster running and sharper baton changes and they had been working with their coaches in order to do just that.
Semi Final
The aim was to run faster and they accomplished that. Lead runner Layla Zuill handing over to Anna Dalglish in turn onto Ellie Eboji. Everything went according to plan and finally it was just down to Rachel McNab. Lying in Second place at this point all that was required was for her to maintain this position and an automatic qualifying place in the final was theirs. Finishing second to Giffnock North was achieved and later upgraded to heat winner due to a disqualification. The time was irrelevant in this situation but it was faster than last week. They had gone into today as the fifth fastest. Now they were second favourites.
1st FIFE AC 'A' 1:58.83
2nd PITREAVIE AAC ‘A’ 1:59.21
The Final
Reaching the final was an achievement in it itself but these girls hadn’t come here just to make up numbers. They were here to win and with the same line up and the same running order they set out to do just that. After the first three legs Layla, Anna and Ellie had built up a solid lead and all that was required was to hang onto this lead. Unfortunately Edinburgh had saved their best until last and now they started to close the gap. Rachel held out for as long as she could but at the final bend the inevitable happened and now Edinburgh had the lead and they weren’t going to relinquish it. They held on to take the title by just less than a second to leave Fife with the consolation of a hard earned Silver. They may have been disappointed but it wasn’t for lack of trying. Once again they had needed to run faster and once again they had achieved this with a time of 1:57.95.
1st EDINBURGH AC 'A' 1:56.96
2nd FIFE AC 'A' 1:57.95
3rd PITREAVIE AAC 'A' 1:59.12
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