North-east athlete Emma Barclay surprised herself by bagging a golden sprint double in the Scottish Student indoor track and field championships at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena.
The Aberdeen AAC member, who comes from Huntly and is currently studying at Strathclyde University, put more than two years of injury woes behind her to take top spot on the podium.
She blasted her way to victory in the 200m by setting a personal best time of 25.72sec before going on to help Strathclyde win the 4x200m relay.
It was a significant achievement for the 19 year-old who had barely been able to compete since July 2019 when representing the Scottish Schools team in the 300m hurdles at an international match in Swansea.
She said: “It was just so good to be back. I hadn’t really thought about how the competition might go so the outcome was a complete shock.
“It was a busy day as I had four races. There was a heat, semi-final and final in the 200m, then the relay after that.
“I actually beat my personal best in the semi-final despite easing down over the final 50m. Then I improved it again in the final, so I was really pleased.”
Success comes after difficult couple of years
Barclay deserves all the success she gets after overcoming the dual challenges posed by injuries and covid restrictions.
“I picked up an injury in the schools international in July 2019 and I was struggling, on and off, for the next two years.
“The main problem has been posterior tibial tendonitis and it wasn’t pleasant at all, so it was a difficult period.
“I joined Aberdeen AAC from Elgin AAC in summer 2019 and I was coached by Frank Gauld.
“He was really great but for the whole of the year I was training there I was always just trying to edge my way back into it.
“Then there was lockdown during 2020 and there wasn’t much happening on the athletics front, but I started my degree course in international business with French at Strathclyde.
“Since I moved down I’ve been coached by Ryan McAllister and he has been great as well.
“I was actually quite fit in summer 2021 but there were hardly any competitions, although I managed a couple of races at open graded meetings at the end of the season.
“There have been a few other hiccups along the way and there have been some low points. It can be hard when you are doing your best but your body fails you.
“But everything is now going well. I’m training six days a week, including two gym sessions and these have really helped me to become stronger.”
Barclay aiming for more success this weekend
Apart from her success at the Scottish Student championships, Barclay last month picked a national championship silver medal.
She said: “My second club is Giffnock North and I ran for them in the national 4x200m relay and we finished second behind Edinburgh AC.
“I was planning to do the individual 200m at the Scottish women’s championships but I had a slight injury scare on the eve of the race and decided not to take a chance with it.”
Barclay believes she can run faster before the indoor season ends and hopes to do just that at this weekend’s British universities and colleges championships at Sheffield.
She said: “The standard will be very high but I’d hope to reach the semi-finals of the 200m. But the priority is to go for a fast time so I’ll not be holding back in my heat.”
Looking further ahead, the Aberdeenshire woman is excited about the summer season.
She said: “I’m going to focus on 200m and 400m. I might get back to hurdling at some point in the future as I was Scottish under-17 champion in the 300m hurdles and represented Scottish Schools in that event.
“But at the moment I’m just trying to build up gradually.”
Anne Howie denied twice by world record holders
Spare a thought for Aberdeen AAC’s Anne Howie who has come up against a world record holder in each of her two appearances at this year’s Scottish masters indoor championships.
First up was last month’s 3,000m title race which Falkirk’s Fiona Matheson won in a world over-60 age best of 10min 56.89secs with Howie taking silver in 11:20.58.
Then last weekend Matheson bagged another world best when winning the Scottish over-60’s 1500m in 5:09.58. Howie again had to settle for silver in 5:21.50.
Aberdeen AAC members won two golds at the masters championships, John Maccorquodale winning the over60’s shot with a throw of 8.90m while Jim Macgregor won the over-55’s high jump when clearing 1.55m
