Edinburgh sprinter Ryan Oswald wins AAA title

CAPITAL student Ryan Oswald delighted his coach John Macdonald by capturing the AAA Under-23 200 metres title at Bedford in a personal best time of 21.23 seconds.

The 21-year-old Pitreavie flyer, who is studying computer science at Heriot-Watt University, took advantage of a kindly following wind of +1.8 metres per second (just inside the legal limit of 2.0mps) to record his second personal best of the weekend, having clocked a wind-assisted 10.39 secs in reaching the final of the 100m on Saturday.

"It shows he's got the leg speed whatever the wind and it's all the more praiseworthy as he's been busy with exams recently," said Macdonald, whose daughter Linsey is the former Olympic 4x400m relay medallist.

Another Capital star Pat Swan (Edinburgh AC), the former New Year Sprint winner, was fourth in the final in 21.48, having clocked a new best of 21.32 in his heat.

Another of Macdonald's athletes, Anthony Young (Pitreavie), was fourth in the Under-20 400m final in 48.69, with Lasswade's Greg Louden taking the silver in 48.45.

There was disappointment for a second Lasswade clubman Guy Learmonth, who also came fourth in a hotly contested Under-20 800m final when he was hoping to clinch a place in the Great Britain team for the World Junior Championships in Canada next month.

Learmonth, the Scottish senior indoor champion, clocked a new best of 1:49.23, beating 1:50.00 for the first time, but left his effort far too late to catch English winner Niall Brookes, who set a championship record of 1:47.29.

"I ran a very poor tactical race and was pushed, checked and boxed in with 300m to go so had to wait till the home straight before I could open up. If I'd had another ten metres I'm sure I could have caught them," said Learmonth, who plans to run the senior UK Championships and European Trials at Birmingham next weekend.

Edinburgh long jumper Sarah Warnock shocked her better-known Falkirk rival Jade Nimmo with a last round leap of 6.07m to snatch the silver in the under-20 event after both athletes had jumped 6.02m, but Nimmo had held second place on countback.

Warnock, who has just finished her first year in radiography at Queen Margaret University, was had a following wind of +2.4mps but was delighted: "That's my first time over six metres and the first time I've beaten Jade," she said.

Allan Hamilton (EAC) another member of coach John Scott's training group, snatched the bronze in the under-20 long jump with a new best of 7.14m.

There was a silver also for former Capital schoolgirl Myra Perkins (Falkirk) in the under-20 hammer (56.43m), while Giffnock clubmates Daniel Carlin took the under-23 shot title (14.70m) and David Smith the under-23 high jump silver (2.05m).