The astonishing progress of Broughton sportswoman Kimberley Reed is now making national headlines. The 16-year-old field athlete excelled again last week, smashing a personal best and writing herself into the record books. Here, her father Scott updates Spurtle on the Bellevue resident and Drummond CHS pupil's latest achievements.
On Friday of last week, Kimberley took part in two events at the Scottish Schools Championships.
She took gold in the Hammer, not only winning her age group, but beating all other female competitors, throwing a personal best of 55.98 metres. This surpassed the previous Championship Best by over 6 metres. This throw was not only a Championship best performance and Scottish Under-17 record, it was also a British Under-17 record, beating the previous British Record by over half a metre. Kimberley is now back in the top ten in the World Rankings for her event.
Kimberley’s performance was judged to be so good that she was awarded the Allan Quaich Trophy for excellence in Hammer for the second year running, and she was given the Frances Barker Shield for the outstanding female performance of the Championships.
The Frances Barker Shield is the most prestigious award in Schools athletics, previous recipients being Yvonne Murray and Elidh Child. Kimberley’s performance was also named the 'performance of the championships on the Scottish Athletics website.
Kimberley's throw exceeds the qualifying standard for the World Youth Championships in Lille, France in July, and also the standard for the Commonwealth Youth Games which will take place on the Isle of Man in September. She is now virtually guaranteed a trip to both. She has also been selected to compete for Scotland at the Schools International in Cardiff and the UK School Games in Sheffield later this year.