Peebles boys go for gold at double at school athletics championships in Grangemouth

Louis Whyte notched up new personal bests on his way to winning both long jump and triple jump events at under-17 level.

His new long jump best of 6m 78cm and triple jump distance of 13m 14cm extend the Peebles 16-year-old’s lead at top of the Scottish rankings for his age group.

Fellow Peebles High School student Robert Horton was also a winner at the double, the 12-year-old picking up the under-13 long jump title with an effort of 4.78m and 75m hurdles title in the same age group with a time of 14.06 seconds.

Kieran Fulton took on the top ranked under-17 in Scotland in the 800m race, just missing out on gold to Rhys Crawford, of Aberdeen’s Albyn School, by less than a fifth of a second. The Peebles 15-year-old set a new personal best of one minute and 55.27 seconds to earn a silver medal, however.

Louis and Kieran are now set to be selected for the Scottish schools team to face England, Ireland and Wales in July’s international championships.

Peebles High was also represented by Hannah Begg and Amy Chapman, the former winning a silver medal in the senior triple jump with a distance of 10.17m and the latter achieving a personal best and semi-final place in the under-15 100m with 14.28.

Galashiels Academy was represented by athletes including Szymon Baron, a seventh-place finisher in the under-14 boys’ javelin with a throw of 29.64m; Evie Renwick, fifth in the senior girls’ 100m with a time of 26.92; and Olivia Lunn, fourth in the 12-year-old girls’ high jump with 1.30m.