Summer of success for Avonbridge’s Sarah Inglis

Lothian Running Club member Sarah Inglis has had a stunning summer

Sarah certainly had reasons to be cheerful. Two British vests which brought her team gold as well as individual bronze. A trip over the Channel to Belgium which saw her record two PBs in the space of four days. Throw in a Scottish Athletics Championship gold medal and it was certainly a happy homecoming for the Lothian club’s World ambassador!

Nine years on from winning her only British vest [World XC Championship, Poland 2010] Sarah was selected to run for Great Britain & Ireland in the 10,000 metres European Cup event at Highgate in London where she helped the team to take the title and a gold medal. Next stop was Belgium, running in the 1500 metres at the International de la Province de la Liege meeting, Sarah finished in second place with a new PB time of 4:11.51. Four days later she stepped up in distance to run the 5000 metres at the KBC Nacht meeting at Heusden-Zoelder, in a multi national star-studded field another PB was secured with an eighth place finish in 15:25.01.

Into August and another GB vest came Sarah’s way when selected to run the 5000 metres at the European Athletics Team Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland [the same city as her first GB representation all those years ago] and an excellent third place finish bagged her an individual bronze medal and 10pts for Team GB.

A week later, back on home soil it was back in distance to contest the Women’s 1500 metres at the Scottish Athletics Championship at Grangemouth. In what was very much a solo run, Sarah went for it from gun to tape and stopped the clock at 4:13.42 to take the title but agonisingly a mere 0.42 of a second outside the stipulated standard required for a share of the Scottish Athletics prize pot of £2000.

She signed off her campaign with a run in the 5000 metres at the British Athletics Championships in Birmingham, in hindsight it’s a race she probably shouldn’t have run as she had come down with a bug in the lead up to the race. Running in 30c heat she finished in 12th place in 16:20.43.