LIKE Laura Muir, Mhairi Hendry won’t be at the Commonwealth Games and her main goal coming into the year was successfully completing her university degree, writes Stewart Fisher. But the similarities don’t end there. Because also like the 24-year-old track and field phenomenon from Milnathort, Hendry will be back at the Arena Birmingham in a fortnight’s time mixing it with the best the athletics world has to offer. That much became clear yesterday when the 21-year-old from Lanarkshire and the Victoria Park Glasgow club produced the finest run of her life to finish second in the 800m behind Sheylana Oskan-Clarke in a personal best of 2.01.30 which was also fully seven tenths of a second inside the qualifying standard for next month’s IAAF World Indoor Championships.
“That was the best race of my life, said Hendry, sporting as broad a smile as any down here. “I panicked slightly when it started, because they all went off so quick. But I just tried to get back on and not let it get to me.”
The pace of Hendry’s emergence has surprised even her. Considered a 2.03.37 athlete as the year began, she was dragged around the Emirates Arena by Muir in 2.02.41 last month when her countrywoman was en route to smashing Lynsey Sharp’s Scottish record. Remarkably, another second and a bit went yesterday, enough to all but confirm her place on the start line here in a fortnight’s time. Of the two other athletes with a qualifying standard, Muir has already ruled out the possibility of entering the 800m and Adelle Tracey was beaten back into third. “It was a surprise when I ran that fast in the Scottish Championships against Laura,” said Hendry. “But after it finished, compared to the other guys who had been there, I didn’t feel that bad. So I thought there was something more in me but I didn’t realise it would be that fast. I kind of thought round about then that I might have the Worlds in my sights, but I didn’t think for a minute it would be so achievable! It is just crazy to think that I should be at the worlds. To get the standard and be in the top 2, I am ecstatic about that.”
Hendry’s best time is now just a tenth outside the Commonwealth standard outdoors, although whether she would have been able to compete or not is uncertain. “When the standard came out, it was so quick to get to Australia and such a small team, plus I don’t know if I had been selected what I would have done, if I could have waited another year to graduate from uni,” said the orthotics student. “I understand Laura’s situation – it is hard to juggle. I suppose in a way it is good I didn’t have to make that decision, but it also means I miss out on Australia and all that nice weather.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here