The Edinburgh Reporter February 2024

23

TEENAGE MILE maestro Corey Campbell

will take to the track for his first competitive

outing of 2024 in Boston next week when he

returns to the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix

taking place on Saturday 3, February.

And the 17-year-old will have a spring in

his stride not just because it is the meeting

where, in 2023, he gained a Commonwealth

Youth Games qualifying time.

On this occasion he will have spent the

first three weeks of 2024 undertaking

warm weather training in Potchefstroom,

South Africa, at the same camp as fellow

Scot Jake Wightman, the 2022 world 1,500

metres champion.

Corey, who became world record holder

for the mile at under-15 age group in 2022

running 4.05.77 returned to his Dunbar home

in latish January and talked targets for 2024

in an exclusive interview with the

Edinburgh Reporter.

Top of the agenda will be another

qualification –this time for the World Junior

Championships in Lima, Peru, in August where

he hopes to compete at 1500m and 3000m.

Also, another age-group mile record is very

much on the wish list.

“I missed out on attempting the under-16

mile best partly because I didn’t run in the

Monument Mile at Stirling where I set the

under-15 record but I also tore the top

portion of my quad muscle at a crucial time.

“Despite this I did run a 1500m P.B. of 3m

45secs which converts to a 4.02 or 0.3 mile.

“So, yes, getting under the four minute mile

barrier remains a big deal.

“Heading for Boston I am happy

with my training and quietly confident.

I support myself.

“The camp itself was exceptionally

structured and the only problem was

switching from winter to summer which

meant early sun-rises affecting sleep!

“I was under the direction of coach Matt

Yates who is a friend of my own coach at East

Lothian AC, Alastair Russell, and it was good

to be in the company of lots of nationalities,

looking across and seeing the likes of Jake

Wightman and Keely Hodgkinson.”

Keely was just 19 when she won an

Olympic 800m silver in the 2020 Tokyo

Olympics perhaps proving that teenage years

need be no barrier to top honours for Corey

who has switched from school in Edinburgh

(George Heriot’s) to Dunbar Grammar for S6

in order to ensure travel time can now be

spent doing more training and preparing

for athletics.

Gathering pace

Mile maestro ready to run

CORSTORPHINE AAC’S frame running group

is enjoying a surge in members, additional

specialist equipment and awards for its coaches

as it celebrates a first anniversary.

The group – the first of its kind in Edinburgh

• launched in January 2023 with one-hour
  sessions for two athletes as part of Corstorphine
  AC’s Active Schools training on Friday
  afternoons at The Royal High School.
  It now accommodates six physically disabled
  and impaired competitors aged 12-60 on the
  track at Saughton each week, with the group
  having been gifted a new frame from the Be
  More Bailey Foundation set up to provide
  opportunities for young people with disabilities
  to take part in athletic disciplines using
  specialist equipment.
  Frames cost around £3,000 each and the
  club has managed to fund-raise enough for a
  further three.
  CAAC’s team was also chosen as one of the
  first beneficiaries of Athletics Trust Scotland’s
  Transforming Lives campaign, with a grant to
  purchase spare parts such as saddles, seat posts,
  chest plates and special gripped gloves so that
  each frame can be modified to suit an

individual’s body.

All this plus the sterling efforts of Graeme

Reid and Francesca Snitjer being recognised

with Lothian Disability Sport’s coach of the

year award in a period when a further coach,

Sarah Murphy, was recently recruited to the

coaching team.

Original members Ian Duncan and Finlay

Menzies have also tasted success both nationally

and internationally. Ian won four gold medals at

the World Abilitysport International Cup in

Denmark last July, while Finlay scooped three

golds at the Scottish Disability Sport Junior

Athletics Championships at Grangemouth in

June and completed both the Edinburgh and

Manchester half- marathons – the latter in a

personal best time of 1hr 39mins.”

Graeme Reid says: “The highlight for

everyone involved was the inclusion of the

frame running squad on club championship

d a y.”

Frame running is a form of adaptive running,

which supports athletes’ bodies by means of

a ‘trike’, allowing them to experience the

sensation of free movement – often for the

first time.

Come on in the water is n-ice

Murrayfield Racers plan a reunion

Membership of frame running group is growing

Corstorphine Athletic Club’s

frame running group

EDINBURGH’S CONNOR

Mollison has dipped his toe

into ice water swimming and

emerged with two gold

medals from British

Championships.

The 31-year-old

photographer, who has

trained with the Warrender

Baths Masters group and

outdoors at Foxlake

Adventure Centre travelled

to Cheltenham Lido and

turned up trumps in both

the 50m backstroke and

freestyle events. Also

successful was Edinburgh-

born swimmer Dan Wallace,

the former Olympic silver

medallist and world

champion who took the

50m butterfly and 100m

freestyle events.

With Dan pipping Connor

in the 50m butterfly event it

made for an interesting car

journey home for the two

friends who, last year, were

part of a quartet who raised

over $200,000 for Ukranian

Relief and Cancer Support

Charities with a sponsored

English Channel swim.

The focus now for Connor

is on ice water swimming.

The one-time Scottish junior

squad representative said:

“Ice swimming is a fairly new

sport with ambitions to one

day achieve Winter Olympic

status. I had been out of

competitive swimming for

about 10 years when I

decided to give it a go as a

way back into competing

and things worked out well

in Cheltenham.

“Rules state that water

temperature has to be under

five degrees and it was

slightly above that but it was

still cold and organisers

pressed on with the

competition. Hopefully I’m

swim-fit enough to have

taken a step towards

representing GB having

missed out on becoming a

Scottish senior

internationalist back in the

day when it was my goal to

compete in a

Commonwealth Games.”

Connor added: “Part of the

exercise is learning how to

handle the cold as well as

race – it’s a balance - and

compared with sitting in

cold water muscles can seize

up more quickly when racing

• something I’ve had to get
  used to.”

MEMBERS OF the

all-conquering Murrayfield

Racers ice hockey team who

dominated the Northern

League during its 16-year

existence from 1966-’82 got

together at the capital rink

to plan a League re-union

at the same venue on

Friday, 22 March.

They are:: Willie Kerr,

Denis Clair, Scott Neil,

Derek Reilly and Dean

Edmiston some of whom

also shared in eight Racers

triumphs in the prestigious

Icy Smith Cup.

As well as former Racers

goaltender Willie Clark,

now 93-years-old and

skipper Gordon Inglis,

former GB rep Terry

Matthews is expected to

attend leading a group

from Whitley Bay. Others

are expected to travel from

the now defunct Durham

team and Ayr as well as East

coast sides Fife Flyers and

Dundee Rockets.

Derek Reilly, now 76,

spent his entire career with

Murrayfield playing 882

games and was inducted

into the British Ice Hockey

Hall of Fame in 1987. He

played for team GB at three

world championships.

Anther likely attendee

will be Freddie Wood

who, in the Racers first

recorded match against Ayr

Bruins, scored seven goals

in an 8-1 victory.

Organiser Denis Clair

joked: “The re-union will

include one opposition

player I got to know when

we had a fight on the ice all

those years ago. We’ve been

friends ever since and I look

forward to seeing him!”

The Northern League

was won in its first three

years by Paisley Mohawks

but subsequently Racers

won seven times with

a couple of successes

each for Whitley Bay,

Fife and Dundee.

Corey Campbell (right)

with Olympic 800m

Bronze medallist

Patryk Dobek

of Poland