Corstorphine Athletic Club’s senior women’s squad won its first ever national team title at the Scottish Track Relay Championships.
Kirsty MacAulay, Olivia Clarke and Alice Mourao claimed glory in the 3x800m with a time of 6mins, 56.14secs.
The trio finished more than five seconds clear of Edinburgh AC.
The success was testament to CAAC’s youth coaching set-up with both Olivia, 16, and Alice, 15, coming through the club’s ranks from the age of nine.
Club president David Arnott, who coaches Olivia and Alice in his junior endurance squad, praised the trio’s achievement and paid tribute to fellow coach Kara McKenzie-Tait, whose women’s squad includes Kirsty.
David said: “We knew the girls were running great as all three had broken their 800m and 1,500m personal bests in the previous couple of weeks, so there was a definite chance of a medal.
“The race went exactly to plan. Kirsty went out hard and got us a 3-4 second gap. Olivia extended that to around 8-9 seconds and then Alice, who was stepping up to the seniors from the under-17 age group, ran a great leg that was three seconds quicker than her personal best to bring us home.”
David hopes the triumph will open the floodgates to further medals for the senior women.
He added: “The senior men’s team have had lots of success over the years winning national team championship medals on cross-country, roads and track, but we have never had the same depth in the women’s side.
“We have been growing our women’s team over recent years through a combination of new athletes joining and juniors coming through the club ranks, but until now we have never medalled at national team level.
“Kara’s squad has some of our ladies, including Kirsty, training together and running really well. At the same time youngsters in my squad are coming through and adding depth and quality.
“This has broken the duck for our senior women’s team and, now that the first medal has been won, I’m sure lots more will follow.”
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