BORDERER Samantha Kinghorn won a Commonwealth bronze medal in the T53/T54 1500m wheelchair race in the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham tonight.

It was a brave effort from the Gordon athlete who was pipped on the line for silver by Angela Ballard who finished eight hundredth of a second ahead.

After the race a delighted Sammi told BBC  "I came fifth in Glasgow as an 18-year-old, I came fourth in the Gold Coast so I'm improving year on year.

"1500  meters is not my event, you can see that it is not my event. I know in the draft I was just trying to recover as much as I could with no help from anyone else. 

 

 

"I just tried to kick but obviously I burned out a little bit in the home straight and got caught but do you know what? A medal for Scotland. That's dream come true. Genuinely it's dream come true.

"I said to my dad mistakes were made but he said no you fought to the line and that's what I want. I don't ever want to win easy.

"I want to fight every single race and to win a bronze medal knowing I fought for it means a lot to me.

"My family mean the world to me and I'm so lucky that so many people managed to come down here and watch me. and this crowd, obviously most of them are probably English but they are absolutely getting behind the home nations.

"I could hear them when I started to accelerate down that back straight.

"I could hear the crowd getting louder and I was like 'come on let's do this' 

"You want to celebrate with everyone and I have loads of friends and family, my brother and his family will have been screaming watching me and I hope that I have done everyone as proud as I can.

"To see my mum and dad who are my biggest inspirations. they have genuinely always told me that life can be very short or life can be very long so why would you spend any time doing something you don't enjoy and I love this. I genuinely love this."

Chief Executive of sportscotland, Stewart Harris, said: ‘’What an incredible performance by Sammi Kinghorn to bring home the Bronze medal, her first Commonwealth Games medal!

"She produced a wonderful performance in this race and this Bronze is thoroughly deserved.

"It is the result of a huge amount of effort and our congratulations go to Sammi, her support staff including everyone at Scottish Athletics.’’

Gold went to Australian para sports superstar Madison de Rozario Australia who completed the race in 3.53.03. Teammate Angela Ballard took silver in 3.53.30 and  Sammi Kinghorn took bronze in. 3.53.38

 

 

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