Horse Racing: Clackmannan teenager prevents first-ever female victory in New Year Sprint

Sister and brother Fiona and Duncan Cleat from East Lothian made history yesterday when they became the first siblings ever to compete against each other in the final of the totesport New Year Sprint held at their home racetrack of Musselburgh.

Fiona herself came within just 0.08 of a second of making history on her own account as she finished that margin in second behind winner Martyn Paterson from Clackmannan who had celebrated his 18th birthday yesterday and was having his first race in the senior men's event.

After 142 runnings, a woman has still never won Scotland's biggest professional sprint race, though several female athletes have now finished second.

Duncan Cleat finished seventh, five places behind his younger sister and immediately quipped: "I'll never hear the end of it."

Earlier in the afternoon, another piece of New Year sprint family history was made when 48-year-old men's hairdresser Wendy Nicol from the Dunfermline and West Fife club won the main supporting event, the Pat Chester 90m Open handicap. In doing so she followed her father John Sharp, winner of the 80 yards New Year event at Powderhall in 1962. Wendy's success completed the first father-daughter double at the New Year meet, and having once finished third in the main sprint she saw her daughter Gemma finish second in the main sprint in 2006 - the trio are believed to be the first family from which three generations have made the New Year Sprint final.

The fastest barber in the east is also a well-known coach and was delighted at further female success: "It's been a great meeting for me as one of the young girls I coach at Pitreavie, Jenny Buchanan, won the 90m youths handicap and was second in the 60m, while Jessie Concannon also got into that final and two of my boys, David Brand and David Allan, made the semi-final in their first New Year Sprint.

"I've been run off my feet all week and was in my bed at 9:30pm last night so I missed the bells, but it's all been worth it."

The semi-finals, known on the sprint circuit as cross-ties, were good pointers to the eventual destination of the 4,000 first prize money in the main 110m totesport sprint, promoted as usual by that kenspeckle figure, Frank Hanlon.

Racing off a start of 22 metres, Fiona won her semi-final in impressive style, and her time of 12.13 secs was enough to make her second favourite for the final. Paterson had won his semi in even more comfortable fashion, in contrast to his performance in Friday's heats where a lapse in concentration meant that he gained qualification only as one fo the fastest losers.

His semi-final time of 11.74 secs showed the youngster's true quality, however, and he went off the odds-on favourite as the small number of hardy punters latched on to the proverbial "good thing" in the handicap.

The other winning semi-finalists were Duncan Cleat - his time of 11.98 secs was matched by Craig Grieve of Jedburgh who joined him in the final - and Cameron Smith of Tullibody who just edged out Greg Turnbull of the Tweed Leader Jed Track club. The final line-up was completed by Seb Harrison of Jedburgh and Ryan Charters of Dolphinton.

Racing off a mark of 6.5 metres, Paterson set off in pursuit of Fiona Cleat, both making very good starts. By the 60m mark, it was clear that Paterson was going the best of the rest and inching ahead of the pack, but Cleat still held a more than useful lead. Paterson, who is normally a 400m or 800m runner, found things happening a bit quickly and said afterwards that he only really became aware of Fiona Cleat with about ten metres to go.

That was when his finishing spurt and strength told, and as he crossed the line, Paterson raised his arms in triumph as he was confident he had won.

The photo-finish gave him a time of 11.91 secs, with Fiona Cleat second in 11.99 secs and Seb Harrison third in 12.01 secs.

"Last night I was so disappointed after my heat but I knew I had to come out today and be a different athlete and keep my concentration," said Paterson, who is a second-year accountancy student at Stirling University.

Paterson has set his sights on making the Scottish team for the 2014 Commonwealth games, as has 17-year-old Fiona Cleat, a pupil at Knox Academy in Haddington.

"I'm not disappointed at all because I wasn't even expecting to get past my heat," she said. "I'm normally a 400m hurdler and this was just a last-minute thing really, following my brother Duncan who usually competes - and now we have made history together."