Paralympian Sammi takes Title in Borders

There is no doubt that Sammi Kinghorn can reflect on many fine performances in 2016 which saw her compete in her first Paralympics and more recently, win a title in her home patch of the Scottish Borders amongst other successes.

The 10km Scottish Championships for Wheelchair Racing took place in Jedburgh in October and there was a fine performance by Paralympian, Sammi Kinghorn.

The Borders athlete took four minutes off her personal best to complete the course in 22.00 minutes and set a new Scottish Record and British Best for the 10K distance.

In fact, Sammi’s performance is the best by Scot – male or female – for Wheelchair 10K. Congratulations to Sammi, her family and her coach Ian Mirfin MBE.

With weather conditions fine, 11 racers from all over the UK competed and there were 10 personal bests recorded alongside the strong performance by Sammi.

Sammi’s fellow ParalympicsGB teammate Simon Lawson won the Men’s race in 20.27 with Mark Telford the first Scot home in 22.03. Promising Dumfries & Galloway racer Sean Frame was fifth in 24.35 (2nd Scot) and the West of Scotland youngster Kyle Brotherton was seventh in a commendable 28.36 (third Scot).

Kinghorn won by two seconds from Jade Jones in a thrilling finish with Yasmin Somers in third.

The race has been renamed in honour of its founder, Jed Renilson, who sadly passed away last year and thanks to representatives from the Scottish Borders Disability Sport Group and the organising committee for their efforts in maintaining the high level of competition that Jed had ensured in his tenure.