TWO hundredths of a second. Twenty milliseconds. One fiftieth of a second. It is the time it takes for a hummingbird to flap its wings twice, how long half a frame takes to flicker across an old analogue telly or the shutter speed of a camera in normal light.
Yet that miniscule margin is all that currently separates Alisha Rees from a life-changing trip to the other side of the world and April’s Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast. Those who haven’t heard of 18-year-old from Banchory are likely to do so soon enough. Already racking up sprint medals from the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa at the age of 16, Rees is a young woman in a hurry.
Although she regarded her 4x100m relay bronze medal from the European Junior Championships in Grosseto earlier this year as just a “good consolation prize” for her fourth place finish in the individual 200m, a personal best of 23.32 in Manchester earlier this month saw her outstrip Scottish athletic heavyweights like Melanie Neef and Allison Curbishley to sit seventh in the event’s all-time history books.
The only problem was that it was still two hundredths of a second outside the time she needs to be on that plane to Australia. That is where this weekend’s Scottish Senior Championships at the Grangemouth Stadium come in. Not only is Rees chasing a remarkable third successive Scottish title at such a tender age, it is one of the last chances she has to shave those hundredths off and stamp her ticket for the Gold Coast “0.02 is nothing so we are really, really trying to get it,” Rees said. “But it is so late in the season now. The deadline is the end of October but obviously the season is over basically in September.
“It is hard to find the races now and I am kind of running out of time. Hopefully I will get it at the Scottish champs this weekend but if not hopefully there will be another chance after that. The worst thing is chasing the time too much. Hopefully I can just stay relaxed, and run a good race.
“But obviously I would really love the opportunity to go to the Commonwealth Games,” added the teenager, who is also targeting next year’s Junior World Championships. “It is in Australia, it would be my first one and it would be amazing. It is not like it is the end of the world if I don’t go, or my last chance – I would only be 22 at the next one. But it would be nice to go.”
Thankfully, Rees is young enough that this tale of woe should not become anything like a Greek tragedy. A powefully-built, natural talent who has been running since the age of eight, she sat next to Laura Muir at last year’s Athlete of the Year awards do, and roared on from the stands as role models Muir narrowly fell short in an epic 1,500m, then Eilidh Doyle and her fellow North East native Zoey Clark took relay silver. Being around such world class performers certainly doesn’t seem to hurt.
“It is great the way the Scots stick together and want the best for each other,” she said. “I definitely want to get to the major championships, so that means Commonwealth Games definitely and also trying to make GB teams for major championships.”
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