Athletics: Edinburgh kids set for final

Edinburgh AC head south to Manchester on Sunday to represent Scotland in the national final of the McCain Young Athletes League, a competition covering three age groups, under-17, under-15 and under-13, boys and girls.

Among the promising young talent chasing points will be the Kerr brothers – Jake and Josh – Morro Bajo, Ben Robbins, Michael Olsen and Kingsley Cunningham in the boys’ events, and Kirsty McKean and Emma Bowie in the girls.

Jake Kerr will do three under-17 throws: shot, discus and javelin as well as a relay, while Josh, who has already won the AAA under-15 1500m title this season, will do the under-15 800m and javelin.

Bajo, a bronze medallist in the AAA under-17 200m and the second fastest senior in Scotland this season behind clubmate Tom Holligan, will run the under-17 100m and 200m, while Robbins will run the 200m and 400m.

Michael Olsen will be bidding to repeat his Scottish under-14 sprint double in the older under-15 group, while the younger Kingsley Cunningham, who missed the Scottish at Grangemouth, should provide good back-up in the B string events.

Kirsty McKean competes in the 300m hurdles and triple jump for the Capital side, while Emma Bowie is a promising 15-year-old hammer-thrower who has reached 48.67m this season to rank second in the UK 
under-17 and looks ready to follow in the footsteps of 
clubmate Kimberley Reed who is now too old for this event.

Edinburgh’s best finish in this meeting has been third, but, with such a strong field set to take part this weekend, even a repeat of last year’s fifth position would be a fine achievement.