Dinwoodie wins 100 metres gold at UK School Games

Lerwick sprinter Katie Dinwoodie struck gold at the national finals of the 2018 School Games, being staged at Loughborough University this weekend.

The 15-year-old, who is a pupil at the Anderson High School, was part of the Scotland team and took an impressive victory in the 100 metres. In a close race Dinwoodie held her form to record a time of 12.36 seconds to win by 0.03 of a second.

She finished ahead of silver medalist Leah Okorhi (Midlands) and England South’s Nayanna Dubarry-Gay in third place.

Dinwoodie said: “That was good – my start was quite bad but I managed to pull through in the end. I expected them to pull ahead but I could see them to the side of me – that’s probably the biggest win of my career.

“The School Games has been really good and I like how there’s other sports here, not just athletics, plus there’s been great support. Hopefully I can come back and defend my title next year.”

Now in its 13th year, the event – featuring over 1,000 school-age athletes – sees some of the most talented schoolchildren from across the UK compete in 11 different sports.

Some of Britain’s biggest sporting stars have previously competed before going onto international success, including Ellie Simmons, Jonnie Peacock, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Adam Peaty.

The games, which is supported by National Lottery funding from Sport England and the home country sports councils and delivered by the Youth Sport Trust, was established in 2006 after London won the bid to host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and formed a key part of the legacy programme.