Athletics: Learmonth wants more despite time

True to his word, teenage titan Guy Learmonth (Lasswade) smashed the one minute 50 secs "barrier" in the Celtic Nations Indoor Cup at Cardiff yesterday and, though he did not win, set his sixth Scottish Indoor 800 metres record in just over a year with a time of 1:49.62.

Learmonth finished second to Welshman Joe Thomas (1:49.18) and easily beat his own previous record of 1:50.25 set last winter.

But the Loughborough University student was still disappointed and wants more: "It was a very, very scrappy race - it turned into a bit of a cat-and-mouse chase with lots of slowing down and speeding up. My biggest mistake was believing he (Thomas] would take it on from the front as he was rumoured to be keen on a European qualifying time." Convinced that with even pacing he can go even faster, Learmonth will run in the Inter-City Cup on the same track next Sunday.

Scottish winners included Dundee Hawkhill Harrier Eilish McColgan in the 1500 metres with a personal best indoors of 4:24.16, more than 11 seconds faster than her clubmate Sarah Kelly ran in representing the Great Britain senior team in the Aviva International in Glasgow on Saturday.

Midlands-based Gemma Werrett was awarded women's "Athlete of the Match" for her 60 metres hurdles win in 8.47.

Men's winners included David Smith with a personal best of 2.15 metres in the high jump, John Carr in the triple jump (15.47m), Ross Matheson (Lasswade) in the 1500 (3:54.36) and David Martin in the 200 (22.24), while Allan Hamilton (Edinburgh AC) set a personal best of 7.15m for second in the long jump and Doug Selman (Corstorphone) was fourth in the 3000 metres in 8:34.12.

The women's 3000 metres was Scotland's only taste of success in the Aviva International at the Kelvin Hall, Birmingham-based Laura Kenney finishing third in a personal best indoors of 9:08.21 after being out-sprinted for second by Germany's Allie Kieffer.

Britain finished second to Germany by five points, with the Commonwealth Select third and USA fourth.

• CAPITAL physio Ali Hay (Central) was narrowly beaten by Dan O'Hare (Inverclyde) for the Scottish 4k cross country title at Bellahouston Park yesterday. Sarah Inglis (Lothian) was runner-up to Elspeth Curran (Kilbarchan) for the women's title.

"It was a very, very scrappy race - it turned into a bit of a cat-and-mouse chase"

GUY LEARMONTH