LOCAL athlete Guy Learmonth was in sensational form in the England U20s Indoor Championships in Birmingham at the weekend.
Learmonth, who comes from Berwick and who is a pupil at Longridge Towers School, won the 800m in a new championship best performance of 1min 50.24 which was also a new Scottish junior record - his fifth of the season.
The 17 year-old finished ahea
d of Adam Cotton of Birchfield Harriers, who is the son of former Scottish middle distance star Mary Stewart and nephew of the legendary Ian Stewart (head of UK endurance athletics) who won the 5km at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.
Learmonth also went to number one in the current U20s UK rankings, and he also went to third on the all-time UK rankings, faster than Steve Ovett, Sebastian Coe and Peter Elliot.
Winning the English title also secured Learmonth the Scottish Puma Grand Prix winter series.
Learmonth and his coach, Henry Gray, will now prepare for the outdoor season with a warm weather training camp in Portugal in April before he aims for his main targets of the summer, which are the English Schools' final, the World Junior final, Scottish and UK Senior Championships, where he will attempt to hit the Commonwealth Games qualifying time which could see him represent Scotland in New Delhi in October.
Guy would like to thank his main sponsors Mainetti of Jedburgh and also the Borders athlete support group
