Scots excel in Isle of Man

Some of Scotland’s best school-age athletes have been competing at the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Isle of Man over the last few days, the youngsters winning 22 medals overall.

The Scottish swimmers got the event off to a flying start on day one with a full set of medals.

James Young High School’s Craig Benson won the gold in the 100m breaststroke, with a superb personal best time of 59.63 seconds.

He said: “I wanted to go under a minute, but I wasn’t sure if I could, and to win the gold is incredible. I saw that I was ahead at 50m and after that I just went for it.”

Earlier in the evening session, Inverurie Academy’s Emily Jones picked up Scotland’s first medal of the Games with a bronze in the 100m breaststroke with a personal best of 1:09:04.

The men’s 4x100m relay team of Josh Booth, Craig Benson, Mark Szaranek and Ali Stirling finished behind Australia with a time of 3:41:50 to take the silver medal.

There were more medals for Youth Team Scotland on day two. Nick Percy set the ball rolling with silver in the men’s discus. Percy broke the under-17s Scottish record and set a new British under-17s record taking the silver with a score of 62.96. Aberdeen Grammar School’s Zoey Clark ran in the final of the women’s 400m where she finished fourth in a photo-finish, showing how tight the margins can be in sport.

Swimmers Ali Stirling and Benson won bronze and gold respectively in the 100m freestyle and the 200m breaststroke.

Day three was by far the most successful of the event for the talented young Scots.

Benson made it a clean sweep of golds in the breaststroke, with victory in the 50m event in a time of 27.79sec.

It was a superb day for athletics, with four medals coming in the afternoon session. Lenzie Academy’s Chloe Lambert picked up bronze in the 200m with a run of 29.49s, before Firhill High School’s Tom Holligan won gold in the men’s 200m in 21.52sec.

In the hammer, Percy won bronze with a throw of 58.96m before Drummond Community High School’s Kimberley Reed took silver with a throw of 54.22m. In the final race; Chloe, Emma Brown, Zoey Clark and Yasmine Milne finished fourth in the 4x100m relay.

In the gold medal boxing matches at the Villa Marina, St Michael’s Charlie Flynn collected silver after narrowly losing to Englishman Henry Thomas, 18-19. Whitburn Academy’s Kieran Smith was also defeated by an Englishman, with Damon Jones winning 10-15. St Stephen’s Grant Quigley featured in the second last bout where he lost by a single point to Australian Dylan Hardy, 15-16.

Glasgow School of Sport’s Douglas Ross picked up gold in the vault with a score of 14.825, while Liam Davie finished seventh in the high-bar. Shannon Archer was seventh and Carly Smith was eighth on the balance beam, and Archer also finished sixth on the floor.

Fiona Donnelly and Emily Jones both won bronze in the 400m IM after a dead heat for third place, and Jones finished sixth in the 200m breaststroke.

Charlotte McKenzie won bronze in the 50m backstroke. The rugby boys finished fourth. In the quarter-final against Sri Lanka, Scotland won 47-0 before facing England for a place in the gold medal match. England came out 19-5 winners, meaning the Scots had to face fellow Pool A team Australia in the bronze medal match. In a closely contested match the Aussies pulled through 15-12.

Kirsty Gilmour won a bronze in badminton and, after good showings at the UK School Games and this event, there are promising times ahead for Scotland’s youngsters.