Deeside sprinter Alisha Rees bookended her indoor campaign by racing against some of the world’s best sprinters at the World Indoor Tour Final in Birmingham on Saturday.
The Banchory Stonehaven athlete, who is now based in London, had been drafted into the competition – which included German, American, and Jamaican internationals – following her bronze medal at the UK Indoor Championships last weekend.
The 23-year-old endured a disappointing return to the second city, however, running 7.41sec in her 60m, which was won in a British record time by the 2019 world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith.
Overall, the 2023 indoor season has nonetheless been one of strong progress for the Torphins-born athlete.
Lowering the Scottish 60m record down to 7.27sec in January – in what turned out to be the second out of eight indoor races this year – proved the ideal starting point for the LSE student.
Looking back on her indoor season, Rees said she was not overly discouraged by her performance at the weekend.
She said: “The week before the World Indoor Tour, I ran 7.28sec twice and felt fairly comfortable.
“The British Championships just took more out of me than I expected – I ran three very quick times in a five-hour period. It was maybe a bit more than my body can take.
“Now I’m just looking forward to outdoors and going on a warm weather training camp in America in April, where we’re going to compete and get some good work done.
“I’m just looking forward to outdoors because they’re the most important thing, and getting in some hard training before then.”
Rees aiming to mount a challenge at UK level
Speaking after the UK Championships last week, Rees explained she is determined to pose more of a challenge to British internationals such as Daryll Neita and Asha Philip, who took gold and silver.
She said: “Obviously I would have liked to have gone quicker overall and get the European (qualifying) time, but I went and ran 7.28sec twice, which is my second quickest time ever.
“I ran quicker in the final this year than I did last year. It’s about bringing this from into outdoors now – that’s really where it counts.
“I’m definitely looking to run really quick for both the 100m and 200m (during the outdoor season).
“I want to make individual spots now and push myself onto that GB team. I’m not here to come second or third; I do want to win and get the qualifying time for worlds and be in the mix (for selection).”
Step up for teenager Hannah Taylor
Also representing north-east Scotland at the UK Championships were middle-distance runners Hannah Taylor and Hannah Cameron.
Taylor, still only 17, was making her debut on the national stage, running 2:15.06sec in a heat which was eventually won by Commonwealth Games representative Jenny Selman.
The Aberdeen AAC athlete, who is coached by Nichola Crawford, admitted to being slightly daunted by some of the opposition.
“But her performance, which was the second quickest of her indoor season, gave her plenty of encouragement heading into the outdoor season in the spring.
She said: “It was quite scary – I was just here for the experience. It’s such a good experience to be running against all these people and it was just good to be in amongst them.
“(Before the race) I just tried to stick to what I’m used to – warming up and just doing my normal routine to keep myself less nervous.
“I’ll go for a five to ten-minute jog outside, do some quick drills, strides, and stretches as well to get myself ready.”
Her race also allowed Taylor to rebound following a sixth-place finish at the England indoor championships in Sheffield earlier this month.
“I was at the English Championships last week and didn’t have the best race. It was more just coming to move on from that and try and end the indoor season well.
“I’m just proud of myself for giving it a go – I gave it everything. I’m going to have a couple of weeks off now, come back and get some training for the track season outdoors.”
PB not enough for Hannah Cameron to make final
Despite setting a personal best of 2:05.71sec in the heat, Hannah Cameron missed out on the 800m final by an agonisingly narrow margin.
Sticking with the early pace-setters, Cameron was in contention for a qualifying spot, only to be run out of a final place in the closing metres by Cleethorpes AC’s Ella Greenway.
Her final time saw her sit 0.05sec away from a time which would have seen her make the last six.
Discussing the race, Cameron said she was still pleased with her overall execution.
She said: “Winning the Scottish indoors was good prep, so recently we’d just been working on tactical racing, how to kick off a slow pace – that’s what I was working on.
“It worked at the Scottish Championships so it was nice to know I have a bit of speed in my legs.
“With the way the qualifying is here, you can’t leave anything to chance. You just have to stick with whoever set the pace. I was happy to take the pace well if I needed to.
“I knew I had to be there at the bell, and just tried to push as much as I could off already tired legs – but it is what it is.”
In the 60m hurdles, Aberdeen’s Jane Davidson set her second-fastest time ever of 8.61sec, whilst Banchory Stonehaven’s Claire McGarvey jumped 1.73m to finish in eights.
McGarvey said: “I’m not majorly happy with it, but I’m not too disappointed either – there were some solid jumps but I would have liked to get over 1.77m at least, and then try again over 1.80m.
“It was a strange atmosphere. Within the competition itself there really wasn’t much… there was a lot of atmosphere around us, but the actual high jump competition itself felt really dead and there wasn’t much going on.
“I felt myself getting distracted quite a lot. It was a bit of a strange dynamic.”
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