Langholm girls do Dumfriesshire proud in Scottish National Athletics Championships

Four young Langholm lasses have done Dumfriesshire proud in the Scottish National Athletics Championships.

Ava Bell, Matilda and Antonia Brockley, and Aoiffion Brangan McVittie, competed at the Aberdeen Sports Village at the weekend.

Matilda, aged 15, won the U20 triple jump with a magnificent personal best jump of 11.92m – an improvement of 44cm on her previous personal best.

That moves her to second in the UK rankings in the U17 triple jump, and she will now head to Cardiff next weekend to compete for the Scotland U20 national team.

Her younger sister, Antonia, had a fantastic day on Saturday winning a silver and two bronze medals in the U15 events. She won a bronze medal in the 100m with a fantastic time of 12.21secs, followed by a leap of 5.19m in the long jump – an increase of 14cm on her previous personal best – to win a silver medal and up to third in the Scottish rankings.

Finally, she won a bronze medal in the 75m hurdles with an excellent time of 11.8secs.

Competing in the U15 triple jump on Saturday, Ava once again jumped brilliantly to beat her previous personal best jump of 9.60cm by 19cm, recording 9.79cm to secure the Scottish Championship bronze medal.

For 11-year-old Aoiffion it was her first event as an affiliated athlete and only her fourth race on a running track, following local events in June and July.

Competing in the U13 100m with 42 other athletes, Aoiffion qualified third fastest from six heats to go into the semi-finals and then went on to qualify for the final as the fourth fastest runner from the two semi-finals.

Up against athletes nearly 18 months older than her in the final, Aoiffion ran a fantastic race, fractionally missing out on a medal.

However, she recorded a