Eilidh sets new record at Pitreavie

Sep 9 2008 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

EILIDH Child raced to a new championship best time at the recent Scottish Championships held at Pitreavie.

The Kinross graduate and current Perth Grammar School probationary PE teacher retained her 400m hurdles title and twice broke the championship best performance of 57.1 set in 2001 by Sinead Dudgeon.

In the heat, the clock stopped at 56.98 but her time was rounded up to 57.00 seconds which also bettered

her own PB of 57.11 set in the final of the European U 23 Championships in Hungary last summer.

In the final Eilidh was even more unlucky when the clocked stopped at 56.84.

She was delighted, only to find out later that a fault with the photo finish camera meant her time was rounded up to a 56.9 hand time.

At the weekend, in her final race of the season she competed for her club at the BAL (British Athletic League) Plate Final in Bedford and easily won the 400m flat in a new personal best time of 53.71, trimming

nearly half a second off her previous best time.

In running the 400m in under 54 seconds Eilidh managed to achieve the last of several targets she had set herself at the start of the year.

In the end, she finished fourth in UK senior rankings for the 400m hurdles and 15th in the UK rankings for the 400m.

In the Scottish rankings she finished 1st and 3rd for the same events respectively, enhancing her Commonwealth Games aspirations..