Dozens of Borderers competing in Edinburgh new year sprint’s supporting events

They’re being held at the capital’s Meadowbank Sports Centre tomorrow, December 30, with the main event, the 154th 110m open handicap sprint, following at Musselburgh in East Lothian on Sunday, January 1.

Tweed Leader Jed Track’s Emma Brus, Rory MacDonald, Kevin Wood and Gavin Tait will be vying for the 800m open handicap’s top prize of £500, along with Hawick’s Thomas MacAskill, Innerleithen’s Dean Whiteford and Kelso’s Matthew Fleming.

They’ve been given handicaps of 175m, 70, 160, 165, 35, 90 and 135 respectively.

Jedburgh’s Callum Murrow, Zoe Blair and Shellee Fojic will be running in the 200m open handicap’s first and second heats, as well as TLJT’s Scott Tindle, Cameron Clamp and Caris Brus, plus Hawick’s Ryan McMichan, Kelso’s John Fleming, Selkirk’s Colin Bruce and Gala’s Robert Noble.

Their respective handicaps as they vie for that run’s top prize of £400 are set at 13m, 32, 39, 11, 12, 39, 15, 22 and 34, with Noble’s yet to be determined.

The 200m open’s third and fourth heats will be contested by TLJT’s Gordon Armstrong, Ryan Elliot, Iskan and Rojin Barskanmay, Evie Renwick, Rory MacDonald and Nina Cessford, plus Kelso’s Douglas Young and Ruby Laing.

Their handicaps are 12m, 13, 15, 36, 32, 17, 37, four and 32 respectively.

This year’s sprint winner, West Linton’s Stacey Downie, is one of a dozen runners competing in the women’s 90m handicap, along with Laing, Brus, Fojic, Blair, Renwick and Cessford.

The 90m veterans’ handicap will be contested by 15 runners including Cessford, John Fleming and Scott Elliot.

There will be four heats for the youths’ 90m open handicap, a £130 prize being on offer for the eventual winner.

TLJT’s Freddie Wilson and Ava and Robyn Lees, along with Kelso’s Lewis Fleming and Evie Leonard and Jedburgh’s Joe McDade, will be running in heats one and two with handicaps of 14m, 15.5, 24, 17, 21 and 24.

Heats three and four will be contested by TLJT’s Craig Tindle, Tess Renwick, Ella McGovern, Rory Smith and Erin Jackson, plus Jedburgh’s Kara Lindsay, Kelso’s Daniel Lawson and Innerleithen’s Stuart Whiteford with marks of 12m, 14, 22, 14.5, 23, 19, 9.5 and 13.

Nine Borderers feature among the 19 names listed for the 800m youths’ open handicap – Stuart Whiteford, TLJT’s Aaron Glendinning and Leonard and fellow Kelso youngsters Matty, Harry and Rory Fleming, Leo Tait and Oliver and Isaac Hastie.

There are also 200m handicaps for youngsters aged nine to 13 and 13 to 16.

Jedburgh’s Joe McDade, TLJT’s Rory Smith, Freddie Wilson, Robyn and Ava Lees, Erin Jackson and Ella McGovern and Kelso’s Leonard and Harry and Rory Fleming will be running in the former.

Lindsay, Whiteford and TLJT’s Glendinning, Tindle and Tess Renwick will be running in the latter, plus Kelso’s Lawson and Matty and Lewis Fleming.

Sunday’s new year sprint is to be contested by 16 Borderers.

They account for almost a third of the 50-strong field for the sprint, offering a top prize of £3,500.

None of 2023’s competitors will be running its 110m distance from scratch, two-time winner Greg Kelly, of East Kilbride, being back-marker on 0.5 metres.

That’s 13.5m behind Downie, winner of July’s 153rd sprint.

The 35-year-old, representing Edinburgh Athletic Club, is getting a 14m head start, three metres back from the mark of 17m she won off last time round in 11.15 seconds.

Other competitors include three previous runners-up, among them Kelso’s Douglas Young, second in 2019, running from 2.5m, the run’s joint-second-shortest mark, and TLJT’s Scott Tindle, pipped to the post by Downie in the summer after clocking 11.18, on 6.5m.

TLJT is the region’s best-represented club, with Gordon Armstrong, Cessford, Ryan Elliot, Iskan and Rojin Barskanmay, Evie Renwick, Scott Tindle, Caris Brus and Cameron Clamp running.

Also competing are Jedburgh’s Callum Murrow and Scott Elliot, Hawick’s Ryan McMichan, Selkirk’s Colin Bruce and Gala Harrier Robert Noble.