Aberdeen AAC’s Olympic Games sprinter Zoey Clark is to fine-tune her preparations for a busy summer of major championship competition by jetting off to Dubai next weekend.
However, the 27-year-old Great Britain 400m international will feel very much at home in the Middle East as she’ll be joined by her entire local training group.
Her partner Ryan Oswald, who is her coach, will lead the party while the other sprinters going along are Kathryn Christie, Rebecca Matheson, David Irvine and Kelsey Stewart.
Clark: “Initially we were looking to go to Florida with the idea of taking in some races, but it didn’t work out time-wise.
So, we have decided on Dubai where we’ll be based at the Sports Village where there’s a track, gym and all the facilities we need.
“It will be good to get some warm weather for training and hopefully some calm conditions.
“I have never known such a windy winter as the one we have had here. I don’t mind the cold and wet, but the wind really needs to go away.
“Every run is like doing extra resistance training.”
World championships and Commonwealth Games are Clark’s main focus
Clark’s main focus for the summer is to represent Great Britain at the world championships in Oregon and to line-up for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
There’s also the possibility of trying to fit in the European championships in Munich.
She said: “The worlds come along first so I’m hoping to be there. But the Commonwealth Games is very important to me, so my first priority is to get a qualifying time for that as early as possible to take the pressure off.
“I actually ran inside the standard of 51.98sec last summer but it was in a mixed race which means it can’t be counted.
“The qualifying standard for the worlds is higher, at 51.18 I think, and I’m hoping to get that as well.
“My best of 51.36 from 2018 needs to be improved. It seems such a long time ago that I did it, but two of the past three years were unusual as there were few competitions because of the pandemic.”
Clark plans to make a low key start to the season a couple of weeks after returning from Dubai, before cranking up through the gears.
She said: “At the moment I’m thinking about opening up with a 100m and 200m but I’m not exactly sure where that will be.
“My first 400m races will be at the District championships as that will be a no-pressure opportunity to get two 400’s done before the bigger races come long.
“After that I’d hope to maybe get a couple of European races before the British championships, but it all depends on how I perform.”
Clark delighted Stewart is back in the fold
Olympian Zoey Clark is thrilled that Aberdeen AAC and Scotland team-mate Kelsey Stewart is back on track after trying her hand at the Winter Olympic sport of skeleton racing.
Stewart was an unused member of Scotland’s 4x400m relay squad at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games when Clark helped the team finish fifth in a national record time of 3min 29.18secs.
But last year Stewart decided to take a break from athletics to try her hand at skeleton racing – a fearsome discipline in which competitors ride face-down and head-first along a downhill frozen track, reaching speeds of 70-80mph.
Although she made a shortlist of six contenders for places on the 2026 Winter Olympic Games training programme, she missed the final cut.
Now the two-time Scottish women’s 400m champion has regained her enthusiasm for track running and has been working out with Clark’s training group at Aberdeen Sports Village.
She’ll also travel to Dubai with the group next weekend for a three-week spell of warm weather training.
Clark said: “It’s good that Kelsey is getting back into it. Obviously she missed a chunk of the winter but it’s great having her in the group.
“She has a fantastic personality and she has been doing really well in the sessions. Hopefully Dubai will be good for her.”
Whether Stewart can force her way back into contention for another Commonwealth Games call-up remains to be seen.
Clark said: “I think the Scotland 4x400m women’s relay squad will be extremely strong and there’s certain to be a lot of names in the running for selection.”
First national title for Heggie
Ross County AC’s Caitlin Heggie picked up her first national title when winning the under-15 girls’ race in the Scottish young athletes road running championships at Greenock.
The Dingwall Academy pupil completed the 4k course around Battery Park in 13min 41secs to finish six secs ahead of Kilbarchan’s Amy Teasdale with Giffnock North’s Freya Campbell a further five secs behind in the bronze medal position.
It’s the first time an athlete from Ross County AC has won an individual medal in these championships.
And it gives Heggie a tremendous boost in the lead-up to next weekend’s schools cross country international in Wales where she will represent Scotland for the first time.
She has been in fine form since the start of the year, picking up bronze medals in the Scottish schools and Scottish national cross country championships as well as setting a personal best time to win the 5k held along with the Inverness half marathon.
Heggie’s clubmate Andrew Baird was seventh in the under-15 boys’4k, clocking 13:15 in the race won by Kilbarchan’s Oliver Patton in 12:22.
Aberdeen AAC’s Grace MacDonald was eighth in the under-17 women’s 5k in 18:49 while Garscube’s Louis Brown won in 16:45.
Meanwhile, Aberdeenshire athlete Alix Still soared to the top of this year’s Scottish women’s rankings when clearing a personal best 6.14m to take second position in the long jump at an open meeting in Charlottesville.
The University of Virginia student, who comes from Kemnay, went even further when hitting 6.17 but the wind speed of 3.8m/sec was in excess of the legal limit.
Still’s performance is the 10th best off all-time by a Scot.
She also finished second in the high jump with a clearance of 1.65m.