Banchory Stonehaven AC’s Alisha Rees produced a performance oozing with class and confidence when winning the women’s 60metres title at the 4J Studios Scottish indoor track and field championships yesterday.
The 20-year-old Loughborough University student left her opponents for dead as she powered down the track at Glasgow’s arena, stopping the clock at 7.33secs to set a new championship record, erasing the previous mark of 7.34 set by Birchfield’s Olympian Katherine Merry in 1994.
Rees, who was competing for the first time since August, also claimed the Scottish national record, bettering the 7.35 set by Edinburgh’s Susan Burnside in 2003 and she now sits at the top of this winter’s British rankings.
The Torphins woman, whose previous best was 7.38 from 2019, is now a tantalising 0.03 seconds short of the qualifying standard required to be considered for the world indoor championships to be held at Nanking, China, in March. Given how controlled and composed she looked when powering to victory yesterday, with no-one putting her under any pressure, it seems certain there is still much more to come from the Great Britain international.
Rees admitted to feeling a bit sluggish in her heat, which she won in 7.40, but everything came good in the final.
She said: “It feels pretty cool to have won and taken the record. I actually felt quite flat in my heat. It was weird but probably it was because it was my first race for a while and I just needed to get used to it.
“The final felt a lot better and I think I might have been capable of quicker if I had more competition. It’s hard to run as fast as you can without anyone close to you in such a short race.
“I knew I wanted the Scottish record but I didn’t expect it today. I haven’t really thought about the world indoors. I have the British universities championships on February 14 then the British championships the following week, so we’ll see what happens.”
Nicola Caygill (Jarrow and Hebburn) was a distant runner-up in 7.63, with Jenna Wrisberg (Giffnock North) third in 7.65. Aberdeen AAC’s Rebecca Matheson was fourth, 7.69, with her clubmate Sharon Jasika eighth, 7.90.
Matheson went on to pick up silver in the 200m, recording a personal best 24.62 to finish behind Jazmine Moss (Gateshead Harriers) who won in 24.21, while Chloe Lambert (VP Glasgow) was third in 24.63.
It ended a busy but successful day for the Aberdeen AAC sprinter who negotiated two 60m rounds as well as three 200m runs.
