Hamilton runner Mhairi Hendry wins under-17 800m title, despite being only 14

Mar 10 2011 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

HAMILTON teenager Mhairi Hendry won the Scottish Under-17 women’s 800m title at the Scottish Indoor Championships last weekend – at the age of just 14.

The Hamilton Grammar third-year pupil beat Edinburgh AC’s Olivia O’Hare by a hundredth of a second, taking the title in 2.17.63.

Mhairi, who runs for Shettleston Harriers, also competed at the Under-17 Women’s age-group at the Aviva England Athletics Open Indoor Championships at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham the previous weekend.

In her 300m heat, Mhairi ran a personal best of 41.61 seconds, finishing third, but unfortunately not qualifying for the final.

In the 800m heat, however, she finished second with a new personal best of 2.16.40 and qualified for the final, where she finished third, collecting a bronze medal in a time of 2.17.14.

In January, Mhairi was also selected to represent Scotland at under-20 level at the Celtic Cup and an under-20 international in Cardiff, where she ran the 800m and 400m leg of a medley relay.

Dad Bruce has been delighted with what he reckons is a turnaround in Mhairi’s performances.

He said: “Mhairi has come into a rich vein of form in the last month or so and took part in the under-20 team at the Celtic Cup in Cardiff. She did OK but was up against older girls.

“She also got a bronze in the 800m at the AAA Championships in England, and she did well to get to the final, never mind win a medal. Mhairi was delighted with that.”

Bruce added: “At the Under-17 Championships last weekend, she won the 800m title by a hundredth of a second.

“She sat in behind and at the last bit of it Olivia put on a kick, but Mhairi managed to get past her.

“The girls she’s up against are a maximum of a year-and-a-half older than her but Mhairi turns 15 at the end of March.”

Bruce hopes this heralds good fortunes for Mhairi but says he won’t be putting any pressure on her.

“You never know how things are going to go and I don’t want to say too much, because it can put pressure on her,” he said.

“I would say that Mhairi levelled off for about a year and seemed to be treading water but she has steadily improved.

“She is doing well and I think that’s the benefit of her outdoor training but we’ll find out how well she’s doing when she goes up for her first outdoor race.

“Last year Mhairi’s best time for 800m indoors was 2.22 but she’s got that down to 2.16. Her personal best outdoor is 2.17 and if we can get back to that it would be great.

“Mhairi will run in the Scottish Schools cross-country event at Irvine Beach on Saturday and the Scottish Road Race Championships at Rouken Glen the following weekend but purely as training events.”

l At the Under-17 Scottish Indoor Championships, Hamilton Grammar pupil Katie Ord was second in the under-15 girls’ shot put with a new personal best throw of 9.44m.

Katie, daughter of former rower Ailie Ord, runs for Victoria Park City of Glasgow AC.