Peebles athlete Louis Whyte, 15, wins national jumping double

The 15-year-old Peebles High School pupil, in his inaugural season as a jumper, leapt a triple jump PB of 12m 85cm and in long jump was just 5cm off his best with an effort of 6m 16cm.

Louis, who also reached the U17 100m final, told The Southern Reporter: “My best event is definitely the triple jump.

"When I’m 18 I want to go to America on a scholarship doing all-round athletics. It would be good if I could do triple jump.

"That would hopefully enable me to progress to competing in European-level competitions and then work my way up.”

Louis views fellow Scottish ace Bera Ajala – who leapt a new national record distance of 15m 89cm as he became Scottish triple jump champion at Grangemouth last year – as the competitor he looks up to the most and would like to emulate.

"Bera went to America as well,” the teenager added. “And he is now very good.”

This weekend Louis will compete in long jump and triple jump at the Scottish Athletics U20 Championships in Grangemouth.

He added: “I’m hoping to medal in the triple jump. The long jump will be more difficult.”

The teenager’s dad Neil revealed that, before competing in Aberdeen, Louis’s coach Linda Nicholson had reckoned his triple jump performances this year already put him at the top of the Scottish under-17 rankings.

“Winning the two events in Aberdeen was absolutely phenomenal,” Neil said. “He has only been properly jump training with Linda for eight weeks.”

Neil said his son had stormed to success at a Peebles High pentathlon competition in each of the last two years, which led to him taking up long jump and triple jump as part of an impressive overall sporting portfolio which also includes running and playing rugby for the Peebles’ under-16s team which won the Borders Region League and East Cup and reached the Scottish Cup semi-finals last year.

Neil said: "Louis used to do a lot of sprinting when he was 10 and 11 and he stopped because of growing pains and he was concentrating on his football and rugby.

"He hadn’t done any sprinting since he was 11 and it was the school that put him into a Scottish Schools Athletics competition, an indoor event at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow in February. Louis entered that having done no sprint training for four years and he won silver in the 60m and bronze in the 200m.

"A lot of people were wondering who this guy was who had turned up and won two medals.

"At that event, Linda Nicholson approached us to ask if he’d like to get back into athletics. The way we looked at it was if he was doing sprint training it would be good for his rugby as well.

"So he did that and then he got to the finals in both the under-17 100m and 200m at the Scottish Schools Athletics national outdoor event in June.”

Also at the Scottish Athletics U17 Championships in Aberdeen, Louis’s training partners Hannah Begg and Anna Forbes both reached two jumps finals each, with 23-year-old Anna coming away with a well deserved bronze in the senior women’s triple jump with a new personal best of 11m 48cm.

Coach Nicholson was very happy with the group’s performances.

She said: “We have very limited facilities in the local area, so to compete with distinction on the national stage is tremendous.

"We are currently looking out for any youngsters with a talent for speed and spring to start training with us for next year.

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