Black Isle discus thrower Kirsty Law has vowed to bounce back quickly from her disastrous performance in the Olympic trials and British championships at Manchester Sportscity last weekend.
The Inverness Harriers club member was devastated to finish in fourth position with a throw of 52.73m. It was her poorest result of the season and what made it even harder to take was that it came just four days after she set a PB of 59.60m in a low-key meeting at Loughborough.
Any lingering hopes of earning selection for the Tokyo Olympic Games went out the window and she also missed the opportunity to complete a hat-trick of British titles.
Law said: “I’ve been going through it in my head and I just can’t work it out. I had to have the worst day of my life to throw 52m.
“I think I put too much pressure on myself. I wanted to go out and win and throw over 60m.
“Even on a bad day, I still thought I could do enough to win, but I just couldn’t throw at all. I had no feeling. Nothing worked and I didn’t deserve to get anything from the competition.
“I went from one extreme to another in the space of four days. Maybe I peaked just too early.
“After the trials, I decided I’d had enough for the season, but I’ve since calmed down and now I’m motivated to throw well again.”
Law, who is based in Loughborough, isn’t one to wallow in self pity. She was straight back into the gym the day after the trials and plans to compete in one or possibly two meetings this weekend.
She said: “I’m competing in the UK national league and I might actually take part in another competition, so it could be a busy weekend.
“I actually have nine possible competitions before the end of the season, but whether I do them all remains to be seen.”
She currently sits in second position in the 2021 UK rankings behind 2016 Rio Olympian Jade Lally, who threw a season’s best of 60.36 in Australia back in mid-April.
Law said: “One of my aims is to get over 60m and finish the season as British number one. I can relax now and hopefully that will help me throw better.
“I’ll also do the English championships and I have other meetings planned at Hendon and Loughborough. I’ll also be doing the Scottish championships in August.”
Law is the second-best Scottish thrower of all-time behind the legendary Meg Ritchie, whose national record of 67.48, set 40 years ago, looks untouchable for the foreseeable future.
But the Highland athlete has outgunned Ritchie’s tally of seven Scottish championship victories.
When she lines up in this year’s competition, she’ll be bidding for a 13th gold medal in 14 years.
Non-stop for Aberdeen’s Zoey Clark after Olympic selection
It’s business as usual this weekend for Aberdeen’s Olympic sprinter Zoey Clark
The 26-year-old has hardly had a moment to catch her breath since learning late on Monday evening about her 4x400m relay selection for the Games which open in Tokyo at the end of this month.
She jumped on a train to Birmingham on Tuesday to pick up her Olympic kit, returning home on Wednesday. Today she will set off on her travels again, this time to London to compete for her English club Thames Valley Harriers in a UK women’s league match at Linford Christie stadium.
She said: “It’s really busy with a lot of travel, but I’m looking forward to the league match.
“However, I’m not going to run in the individual 400m. I’ll do some fun events like the 100m and 200m, and maybe the 4x400m relay.
“After that there’s the possibility of a race at the Gateshead Diamond League meeting in mid-July.
“A couple of days after that we’ll fly out to the team holding camp at Yokohama. I was there about two years ago when the world relays took place, so I know the set-up.
“I think we’ll only go to Tokyo for our competitions. The officials are keen to minimise the number of people staying at the athlete’s village there for any length of time and I believe competitors will be asked to return home as soon as their events have finished.”
Clark could be in Japan for longer than most athletes as she hopes to be involved in the mixed relay as well as the women’s relay.
She explained: “The mixed relay is early in the athletics programme and I’d hope to get a run in that. Then the women’s relay is at the very end.”
Douglas to miss Mont Blanc race after restrictions see flights axed
The ever-changing overseas travel restrictions have forced Great Britain mountain running international Andy Douglas to pull out of this weekend’s Mont Blanc marathon.
The Caithness athlete was due to compete in the second round of this summer’s Golden Trail world series of races at Chamonix, but his flights were cancelled
He said: “It’s not looking good with all the restrictions being put in place by other countries and, unless you’re an Olympian, there’s very little scope for any meaningful travel exemptions.”
Meanwhile, Kenny Wilson (Moray Road Runners) starts as favourite to win the latest Back-to-Basics 10k road race at Forres on Saturday following the withdrawl of Sean Chalmers (Inverness Harriers), who has a back injury.
It will be Wilson’s first race since setting a personal best marathon time of 2hr 18min 52secs at the Cheshire elite race in April.
Other contenders include Aaron Odentz (Aberdeen AAC), Shaun Cumming (Highland Hill Runners) and Finlay Todd (Ross County)
Jenny Bannerman (Inverness Harriers), who was runner-up behind her clubmate Megan Keith in last month’s B2B race, is favourite to win the women’s competition.
Keith isn’t taking part as she is preparing for the European under-20 track and field championships in Estonia later in the month, but Bannerman still faces some potentially tricky opponents.
Metro Aberdeen’s Ginie Barrand and Claire Bruce, who finished first and second respectively in last month’s Fraserburgh 10k, have both signed up.
Others expected to feature strongly include Catriona Fraser (Inverness Harriers), Tammy Wilson (JS Kintore), Kayleigh Jarrett (Shettleston Harriers), Kirstie Rogan (Moray Road Runners), Jen Harrison (Aberdeen AAC) and Caroline Marwick (Inverness Harriers).
