Scotland’s Sammi Kinghorn continued her amazing 2017 with a superb debut at the distance in the wheelchair race at the Chicago Marathon.
Kinghorn, Double World champion at 100m and 200m during the summer, finished in fifth place in 1.43.52 and that’s well inside the standard required for the Commonwealth Games.
It was a Scottish Record for wheelchair racing for the marathon. Sammi had been nursing a wrist injury in recent weeks following the Great North Run but recovered in time to finish second at the Great Scottish Run wheelchair race to set her up for the trip to the United States.
Yesterday, after her first gruelling experience of the 26.2 miles distance, she tweeted: ‘Marathon debut completed in a time I didn’t think possible and couldn’t do it without my coach, Ian Mirfin’.
Last month, the 21-year-old from the Borders was named Scottish Sportsperson of the year at the Team Scotland Scottish Sports Awards and Sammi has also been short-listed for our own FPSG Annual Awards on Saturday 4 November.
The Chicago Marathon performance will secure Sammi a slot for the Gold Coast 2018 and she already looks like a medal contender at Commonwealth level for that event, while also being expected to compete on the track in Australia over 1500m.