Head for the Hills - Katie Graham makes big improvement in Scotland

Katie Graham from County Armagh continued her season of mountain running success when representing Northern Ireland and Ulster at at the British and Irish Junior Mountain Running Championships in Peebles, Scotland last weekend.

The 3.8K race on Cademuir Hill had a total elevation gain of 180m and temperatures soared to over 20°C.

Katie finished 8th, despite falling in the latter stages of the race. This was a big improvement on her 13th place last year.

The Portadown College pupil competes for Lagan Valley AC and is coached by Jim McKeown. She had success earlier in the year in cross country with a 5th place finish at the Irish Schools. She likes mountain running because of the sheer challenge of the discipline and has concentrated on it all summer, indeed even missing some GCSE exams in the process.

She finished 21st in the U18 race for NI and Ulster in the International Mountain Running Cup that was held near Annecy. This was the highest finish ever recorded since NI and Ulster began sending teams six years ago.

Then Katie won the Irish trial race, finishing 2 minutes clear of her nearest rival. That cemented her place Irish team for the World Mountain Running Championships in Austria where she finished a highly credible 36th.