Published: Thursday, 28th May, 2009 11:00am

Child clears first hurdle on route to European gold

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HAVING not competed since last summer, West Fife track athlete Eilidh Child was raring to go in her first event of the season, the recent Loughborough International.

Representing Scotland in the 400 metres hurdles she produced a personal best of 56.27 seconds to win the final.

But that wasn"t all. In less than one minute she had created other opportunities. She got inside the qualifying standard for the Scottish team bound for next October"s Delhi Commonwealth Games (though there are other fences to clear before she can be selected for the team). She also achieved a "B" time for this year"s senior World Championships and reached the qualifying standard for her major goal of the season, the European Under-23 Championships in Lithuania in July.

'In the first races of the year you"re usually a little bit rusty but I knew I was on form, I was hungry for it and ready to compete,' she said.

'The race felt really good, I was comfortable and composed and pleased with the result.'

Talking to the 22-year-old trainee PE teacher you sense a renewed excitement about what might lie ahead. Her attitude to the sport has undergone a rejuvenation, which can be traced back to last autumn and her changing coach to Stuart Hogg.

The switch brought a new training venue, different training partners and a new philosophy.

'I"m working harder at a higher level, in a better environment,' said Child, who had not competed indoors this winter because both she and Hogg saw more benefit in training instead.

'I used to train on my own and I didn"t have a squad to train with. At Pitreavie, where I now train, Stuart has four other guys that have all competed at the Olympics and you feed off that. It"s become more exciting and new, I really got the buzz for it again.

'Since I changed in September, training has been going really well, I"ve been working a lot harder and my times show I"m a lot fitter.'

Given the new approach it"s no surprise that at Loughborough Child left the blocks in the best form of her life.

For Aileen McGillivary, performance manager for UK Athletics" World Class Plan, which has supported Child for the last two years, the result was not unexpected.

'We"ve been tracking Eilidh"s training all winter and there were enough indicators to highlight that she could start the season pretty well,' she said.

'It"s a combination of being involved in the right environment with good coach leadership and she has had tremendous support from the Tayside & Fife Institute of Sport (TFIS).

'Together with her coach, Stuart, and the TFIS, we plan her support and we"re doing two projects with her. Physiologist Barry Fudge has been tracking every training phase to see if it has achieved what we thought it should. That"s linked closely with the nutrition support she gets.

'The other project is blood monitoring. Because she is a teacher, there are occupational hazards such as greater exposure to illnesses and viruses from the kids.

'We have monitored her blood to make sure she"s free from virus, she has recovered sufficiently from the previous training phase and can move on to the next phase.'

So far so good. Child has been healthy and injury-free through the winter. She also admits that having a fully integrated support team behind her has removed pressures from her shoulders to the extent that, 'All I have to do is come to training and train.'

If Loughborough is any indication of how the rest of the season might shape up then she could be in for an exciting summer.

She is still taking in achieving a senior World Championships B standard, which she thinks means she will compete in the event if insufficient athletes meet the A standard. With her season"s goal the European Under-23 Championships in July the Worlds (a senior event) would be an almighty bonus.

'The Worlds depends on who does what this year and if I can go any faster,' she said. 'My main goal for the season is the Europeans. I went to the event two years ago and finished fifth. Hopefully this time I can at least get a medal and challenge for gold.'