Eldest of three brothers goes for gold over 60m
Tweed Leader Jed Track’s Cameron Tindle hit the gold standard at this year’s Scottish Athletics indoor track and field championships at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena, clocking the fastest senior men’s 60m sprint time seen so far this season this side of the border.
Tindle, a first-time 60m champion at the age of 27, crossed the finishing line in a winning time of 6.84 seconds, a personal best, over a tenth of a second faster than the 6.99 recorded by runner-up Ben To, representing Greater Manchester’s Bolton United Harriers and Athletics Club.
Owen Murphy, of South Lanarkshire’s Law and District Amateur Athletics Club, was third of eight finalists in bang-on seven seconds.
Tindle, coached by Bruce Scott, was accompanied in the day’s senior competition by younger brothers and TLJT teammates Scott and Craig, the former competing over 60m and 200m and at triple jump and the latter over 60m and 200m.
Scott Tindle just missed out on the 60m final, finishing ninth in the semis in 7.14, with his elder brother clocking 6.88 that time round, and he was fourth and last at triple jump with a personal best of 12.72m, just over two metres short of the winning distance of 14.73m recorded by Edinburgh Athletic Club’s Berachiah Ajala.
He was also fourth in the men’s 200m final in 23.83, the best part of two seconds behind the winning time of 21.48 clocked by Edinburgh’s Bradley Francis, following on from chalking up a PB of 22.57 in the semis.
Craig and Scott were up against each other in their 60m heat but the former, clocking 7.54, didn’t make it to the semis and the same applied to the 200m, though he did record a PB of 24.23.
Royal Air Force air specialist Cameron said he had his brothers to thank for his gold win a decade on from his last medal win, explaining: “I’ve two younger brothers competing here, Craig and Scott, and I raced Scott in the semi-finals, so it was a good family effort.
“To be honest, I am back in the sport because of their persuasion. They have kept telling me I was wasting my talent by not sprinting.
“If it weren’t for my brothers, I don’t think I’d have been back here.
“It was good to come here again and improve on my time from the national open and win the final.
“I won a bronze medal once in 2016, when Richard Kilty was here guesting. It’s been a long time.
“I’m absolutely pleased with 6.84. I’m always striving for something quicker but winning was the most important thing today. It always is in a championship run.
“It’s been a long journey and a hard one but I’m grateful to be back where I am. I’m enjoying doing it and I’ll continue to do so.”
Innerleithen’s Rory Smith, representing Edinburgh Athletic Club, also competed over 60m, making it to the under-18s’ final at the first time of asking in that age bracket and, though only aged 15, he finished fifth of eight in 7.27, with victory going to Merseyside’s Finlay Coakley-Harding in 7.05 and Gala Harriers’ James Cockburn clocking 7.41 for seventh place.
Louis Whyte – like Smith, a member of coach Linda Nicholson’s Peebles sprints and jumps group representing Edinburgh Athletic Club – was runner-up in the senior long jump. The 19-year-old equalled his PB distance of 7.21m to finish 3cm behind clubmate Calum Henderson.
Another clubmate of theirs, Newtown’s Ewan Purves, landed a bronze medal in the senior men’s 400m race in 48.77, with first place going to North Ayrshire’s Ben Heron in 47.91.
Cockburn’s Gala clubmate Robert Horton was fourth in the under-18s’ 400m final, won by Glasgow’s Charlie Murray in 51.05, in a PB, almost a second and a half better than his prior best.
The Galashiels club were also represented by Kacie Brown and TLJT by Evie and Tess Renwick, Jack Laverty, Robyn Lees and Isla Woodburn.