Freezing conditions at Grangemouth didn’t deter a number of brave TEL athletes who entered races from 90m to 1500m as part of the 155^th running of the New Year Sprint festival. Moved from its traditional venue of Musselburgh racecourse, Grangemouth hosted races for all ages and abilities, with the traditional handicapping system levelling up the fields to ensure exciting and competitive races, all with the rare attraction of prize money attached.

In the main 110m sprint Kerry M 12.02s qualified for the semi finals with Chris R 13.84s sadly missing out on progressing. Kerry’s 11.84s in the SF was not enough to progress to the final, however she was racing again in the 90m ladies competition, which turned into a hugely successful one for the TEL.

With Kerry 11.33s, Gemma B 10.77s and Beth C 11.01s all winning their heats to automatically progress to the final and Laura B 10.92s as the fastest runner-up, the chances of a clean sweep were very much on the cards. The final proved the point with Gemma scooping the first prize of £150 with 10.63s, Laura second with 10.7s, Beth third with 10.75s and Kerry 6^th with 11.17s.

Two other great TEL performances came in the 800m Youths event with Jake P’s 2.02.03 ensuring 5^th place and Eily S also securing 5^th place in the 1500m Open final with 3.57.43.

Aaron M running 10.61s and Aoife S with 10.7s were narrowly unable to progress from 11 very competitive heats of the Youths 90m and there was similar disappointment in the Masters 90m heats with Beth C 10.86s (7^th overall) and Chris R 11.63s (12^th overall) missing the finals.

Congratulations to all who took part… perhaps there’ll be a few more TEL athletes ready to run next year!