Scottish Highland Games Association

SHGA Award winners introductory highlights

YOUTH OF THE YEAR[Female]

Brodie Cowan-Jedburgh

Brodie enjoyed her best ever season on the highland games circuit. This summer saw her regularly make the journey up from the Borders to compete at the Fife games which paid dividends by winning the Fife youth sprint league. Following a 3rd place at Markinch she did the double at Cupar with wins in the 90 and 800m. Two 3rd places at both Thornton and St Andrews and a runners up spot at Crieff gave her enough points to finish 3rd in the SHGA league.

YOUTH OF THE YEAR[Male]

Sean Bates-Tullibody

Sean was rewarded for being a regular attendee on the circuit by winning both the Youth sprint and distance leagues. He picked up points at no fewer than 15 games. In total he won 9 races, including a treble at Ceres and a double at Helensburgh. In total Sean amassed 80 points and was also the winner of the Fife distance league.

VETERAN OF THE YEAR[Distance]

Donald Bradley-Inverness

Donald turned the clock back with some vintage performances on the circuit this summer.

The Inverness veteran who was the SHGA Athlete of the Year 21 years ago in 1995 travelled all over the country to compete and picked up points at around 15 different games. He had notable wins at Oban, Crieff and Pitlochry as well as many placed runs over many distances.

VETERAN OF THE YEAR[Sprints]

Cameron Smith-Tullibody

Consistent performer Cameron made a great start to the season with 90m wins at Markinch,Cupar,Kenmore and Alva and reached finals at Blackford,Burntisland and Airth.

Due to other commitments, Airth would be his last games of the season. He ended on a high however with victory in the 200 metres.

YOUTH CYCLIST OF THE YEAR

Kyle Cartmel-Forres

Kyle gathered the bulk of his points on the Northern circuit, in total he won 9 races with the highlight a treble at Grantown on Spey and a double at Pitlochry which clinched him the SHGA league. He also had wins at Helmsdale,Dornoch, Blairgowrie and Invercharron.

CYCLIST OF THE YEAR

Charles Fletcher-Grantown on Spey

Charles enjoyed his best ever season on the grass tracks of the highland games circuit where he won no fewer than 35 races. He picked up Scottish titles over 800 metres at Halkirk,1600 metres at Ceres and 3200 metres at Alva. At Halkirk, where they have seven races he won six of them.

With all this success it was no surprise to see him emerge a runaway winner of the SHGA league.

OUTSTANDING FEMALE ACHIEVEMENT

JAZMINE TOMLINSON
Jazmine, from Jedburgh made history at Musselburgh Racecourse on the 1st January this year when she became the first ever female winner of the famous New Year[Powderhall] Sprint Handicap. This was the 147th running of the race, all the first day heats took place at Meadowmill Athletics Arena which was being battered by torrential rain and gale force winds from Storm Frank, Jazmine won her heat in 11.79 seconds. Thankfully the weather was kinder 48 hours later at the racecourse where she won her semi final in 11.39 seconds. The final produced a race to remember, in one of the closest finishes in the history of the race, five athletes hit the line almost in unison, the photo finish however determined Jazmine who ran from a handicap of 20.5 metres had prevailed by 0.03 of a second to write her name into the history books on a day she will never forget.

HEAVYWEIGHT ATHLETE OF THE YEAR - SCOTT RIDER
The standard of throwing on the circuit this season was the best it's been for a number of years.
Many ground records were broken throughout the campaign.
Scott Rider had an outstanding season taking the World,British and Scottish titles.
His grand slam performance of winning all seven disciplines in the Scottish championship at Crieff was reckoned by many seasoned campaigners as being one of the greatest ever achievements in highland games history. Scott, who has represented England at 3 Commonwealth Games in the shot putt and GB in the Winter Olympics in the 4-man bobsleigh team also became the first heavy to acrue more than 700 points in the league.

SCOTTISH HEAVYWEIGHT ATHLETE OF YEAR

Lukasz Wenta -East Kilbride

Lukasz, who is now officially a Scot had another good year on the circuit where he finished runner up to Scott Rider in the league. If there was an award for attending most games ,Lukasz would probably win it.

Jimmy Murray TOW Trophy

Peter McReadie

SHGA ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

ALLAN HAMILTON-Edinburgh AC

This was very much an unanimous decision, Allan had an exceptional season in both running and jumping.
The highlight came at the Mull Games in July when he broke two long standing Scottish records. He became the first man to jump over 50 feet in the triple jump when he leapt out to 50' 1.5'' the record had stood since 1982. The 2006 long jump record of 24' 2'' also went with Allan setting new figures of 24' 6.5''.
Long established ground records also fell at a number of Games while on the track he won SHGA sprint titles at both Loch Lomond and Braemar, One weekend in mid-August he won the Open 90m handicap from the backmark plus LJ & TJ at Stirling Games, then 24 hours later at Crieff Games won the LJ,TJ & HJ to take the SHGA Light Field Championship and again won the 90m handicap from the backmark.
Allan also sprinted to a £1000 prize in the Borders when he took the 90 metres handicap title at the non SHGA Langholm meeting, then less than 24 hours later travelled the entire length of the country [360 miles] to take part in the Halkirk Games where he won no less than five events, 85m, 200m, LJ, TJ, High Jump.
At the end of August he ran a new 100 metres PB of 10.95[4th fastest in Scotland this year] in a Scottish league match at Grangemouth, 48 hours after contesting 6 events at Oban Games including the Long Jump where he broke a 104 year old record. Allan who returned to America earlier this month until the end of the year also won the Scottish Athletics Long Jump title where he is ranked number one.

SHGA LEAGUES

YOUTHS UP TO 400 METRES

2. Ben Lyall-Kelso

In hindsight Ben must be wishing he made more appearances on the games circuit.

He only competed during August and won every weekend. A 90 metres win at Bridge of Allan was followed by a 90-200 double at Perth, then came a 90m win at Crieff and ended the month with victory in the 200 at Birnam.

YOUTHS OVER 400 METRES

3. Conor Allan-Pitreavie AC

Connor didn't appear at a huge number of games however at the ones he did, he won. He had a 1st and 2nd at both Markinch and Inverkeithing followed by a victory at Airth, this gave him enough points to finish runner up in the Fife league and 3rd in the SHGA equivalent.

OPEN SPRINT LEAGUE

1 Lee Goodfellow TLJT

Lee didn't appear on the circuit until late June but wasn't long in making his prescence felt, recording 200 metres wins at Ceres,Alva,Rosneath,Perth,Luss and Birnam. He was also runner up in the 90 metres at Birnam, Perth and Mull. The league clincher came in late August with victory in the 90 metres at the Argylshire Games at Oban. Perhaps the only disappointment in what was an excellent season was that he failed to retain the coveted World Haggis Eating title at Birnam which he had previously won three times!

400 M/800M METRES LEAGUE

2 Ewan Bradley-Inverness

Ewan had the most consistent of seasons, competing in games in a number of different regions, including Perthshire,Fife,Clackmannanshire, Grampian,Argyll and Highland. He gathered points in four different leagues, which meant, outwith the heavies, he competed at more games and won more points than anyone on the circuit. His season long battle with Craig Robertson in the 400/800 league went down to the wire. Despite wins at Blackford on the opening day of the season and at Invercharron on the closing day and at many venues in between he still fell agonisingly short by 5 points, first time anyone has racked up a total of 90 points and finished second.

1 Craig Robertson-Logierait

Craig showed a high degree of consistency throughout a season where he was once again very much travelled. He was one of only a handful of athletes who picked up points in all three running leagues. He eventually emerged victorious in the 400/800 metres league after an intriguing season long battle with runner up Ewan Bradley. Craig got off to a flier with a treble at Helensburgh and an amazing 5-timer at the Strathmore Games. Further wins followed at Cupar,Kenmore,Halkirk,Stonehaven,Ballater,Stirling, Birnam and in the Borders at the non SHGA Jedburgh meeting. Such was the consistency of Craig and Ewan they amassed 185 points between them. Just reward for being regular attendees at nearly all games.

OVER 800 METRES LEAGUE

1 Dean Whiteford-Innerleithen

Dean,who was SHGA athlete of the year in 2015 had another good season this year. Once again travelling all over Scotland from his base in Innerleithen in the Borders. He won races over 800,1600 and 3200 metres. Dean recorded a treble at Bogles Field, a double at Thornton as well as wins at Ceres,Crieff and Pitlochry, clinching the title at the latter thus avoiding the long trek North to Invercharron on the final day.

LADIES RUNNING LEAGUE

4 Sarah Ross

Due to injury Sarah didn't have her best season on the games circuit. She did however have a successful day at Blairgowrie where she won the 90 metres and finished 3rd in the 200,400 and 800 metres races. This gave her enough points to sneak into 4th position in the ladies league.

1 Zaynah Aziz,Selkirk

In her first full season in Open competition Zaynah enjoyed a successful spell midway through the campaign. A second place at Loch Lomond was followed by two thrilling 800 metres handicap wins at both Bridge of Allan and Airth. Both races had big fields and produced exciting finishes that had the crowd on their feet as they watched Zaynah determindly hold off all challenges. Zaynah is also a former female youth athlete of the year an award she won 2 years ago.

YOUTH CYCLE LEAGUE

2= Alexander McLeod-Aberdeen

Alexander had a good first season on the games circuit, he recorded wins at Thornton,Grantown on Spey and Blairgowrie and was also runner up in 4 races at Halkirk.

He also competed in the youth running events at Thornton where he picked up a prize for 2nd place in the 1600 metres.

Published: 2016-10-27 13:20:55