Running club searches for emerging talent in the north-east
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A north-east running club which boasts some the top talent in the north of Scotland is on the lookout for future stars whose athletic ability may not yet have been discovered.
While YoungMeldrum Runners do not necessarily need to boost numbers in any of their training sessions which are pretty full already, coach Mark Wylie BEM is looking for individuals who may not be a member of a club, but who are involved in running in some form.
He explained: "We are now training some of the top youngsters in the north of Scotland at weekly sessions in Oldmeldrum.
"Some attend more than one session a week.
"Young runners travel from as far away as Huntly, Westhill, Blackburn, Ellon and Kemnay as well as many other villages around Aberdeenshire to attend the often tough, but fun training sessions."
Mark who was an elite runner in his younger days and has coached now for many years continued:“We are now busy searching the local areas of Aberdeenshire for other young runners aged from eight to 15 years who don’t already attend a club but are showing great potential in PE at school for example, or perhaps they are very keen and go out running with a parent, and perhaps out running them too”
"There are many runners showing great potential at the club, boys and girls of all ages, with one 12 year old girl Rhian Birnie achieving sub 20 minutes for her 5K.
"Rhian has already won some local adult 5K races and the boys are getting closer and closer.
“The plan here is to hopefully discover another local youngster who is showing great potential and for them to join our team of running stars at training with a focus on future road and cross country events.”
“There must be so much undiscovered raw sporting talent out there in our local community.
"It’s right that we try to find this talent and nurture some of it.
“Sport in general but particularly running can be so good for us all and have a very positive effect on our body’s, both physically and mentally, it also has the ability to change people’s lives, especially youngsters.”
“Perhaps one day they could be a future international runner or Olympian!”
If you think your child or teenager may have a special talent for running and they would like to try to develop this much further, you are welcome to get in touch with YoungMeldrum Runners on their Facebook page or the club number is - 07748 186080.
