Guysets newPB atendof thetrack
GUY LEARMONTH ended his track season on a high last night in Rovereto by running the second-quickest ever 800 metres by a Scot.
The World Championship semi-finalist, 25, was fourth at the Italian meeting in 1:45.10 as Kenya’s Wycliffe Kinyamal claimed victory.
The Borderer now only trails Tom McKean on the all-time Scottish list.
He said: “I want to do well at world indoors and then look for a medal at the Commonwealths.
“My coach will come up with a masterplan. I’ve faith it will get me faster in 2018.”
Elsewhere, Lynsey Sharp ended her season with third in the 800m at the IAAF World Challenge in Zagreb.
Dina Asher-Smith was nudged into second in the 100m by Blessing Okagbare. DAVID NORRIE grew up listening to the Hampden roar from his house and now he is thrilled his son is becoming a big noise in British tennis.
Cameron Norrie stepped up on the first day of the US Open to lead the British men’s charge at Flushing Meadows in the absence of Andy Murray.
His reward for a first-round win over Russian Dmitry Tursunov is a showdown today with 12th seed Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta.
Fellow Brit Kyle Edmund is also in second-round action against American Steve Johnson as he bids to eclipse last year’s run to the fourth round in New York, his best performance at a Slam.
Norrie senior, a microbiologist in Auckland, rose in the small hours in New Zealand to hit refresh on his mobile phone time and again before his boy’s victory was confirmed.
Tursunov retired injured with the score at 7-6 (9-7) 6-1 in favour of the adopted Scot and David went to bed safe in the knowledge his kid’s meandering route towards the top is paying off.
Cameron, 22, was born in Johannesburg, raised in Auckland and spent two years in London as a teenager before being schooled at Texas Christian University in the States.
But his decision to embrace his Scots heritage is no surprise given the upbringing of his father in Glasgow, just a stone’s throw from the nation’s spiritual football home.
David, 62, said: “I was raised in King’s Park, only a couple of streets away from Hampden. In fact, from our house I could hear the roar of the crowd when the big matches were on.
“I come from an era when you could still get a lift over the turnstiles. I watched quite a few games at Hampden that way but my most memorable match as a Scot was in 1967 when we defeated England at Wembley.
“I was only 11 but the image of Jim Baxter playing keepy-uppy lives in my memory still.
“We didn’t watch the first round unfortunately. It was 3am over here and it wasn’t live on TV so we had to settle for the live score updates on the US Open app. It wasn’t ideal but hopefully we’ll get access to a Eurosport feed for the second round.”
Cameron’s gran still lives in Castlemilk, his dad’s brother and his family are in Aberdeenshire and the player ranked 225 in the world at this stage of his fledgling career is happy to be considered a Scot.
He’s already been called into the Davis Cup squad by another Glaswegian, head coach Leon Smith, and Murray has been
Playing with Andy Murray has shown Cameron the focus you need to reach the top
supportive since they first met earlier this summer. David said: “Andy came up to Cameron in the locker room at Queen’s Club and introduced himself. They hit together a lot before Wimbledon and the experience of playing and preparing with Andy has shown Cameron just how focused you must be to reach the top. “Cameron was amazed at how Andy didn’t want to waste a single ball in practice. He’s a great role model and comes across so well. “Off the court he’s erudite,
witty and balanced. He shows great humility. He maybe knew Cameron lacked the courage to go up and introduce himself at Queen’s so he did it himself, which speaks volumes.”
David played tennis at King’s Park, Kingswood and Newlands but work took him abroad to South Africa where he met Cameron’s mum Helen, also a microbiologist, who comes from Cardiff.
But they turned their backs on the country a couple of years after their son was born to move to New Zealand for a safer life.
David said: “The crime level in South Africa was getting out of hand and with a young family we decided to move to a safer and more friendly environment.
“Cameron’s upbringing has stood him in good stead for his tennis career as you must be a good traveller. He had no option but to leave New Zealand because there are a dearth of opportunities for tennis players.
“He was always interested in sport as a kid. He didn’t have a hero as such but loved the All Blacks.
“You name the sport, he played it – football, touch rugby, cricket, tennis. We encouraged him to take part in everything.
“It was only when he was 15 that he decided tennis was the way to go.”
Cameron finished his career at TCU as the highest-ranked player on the American college circuit and his progress was boosted this year with a Wimbledon wildcard.
He lost in straight sets to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga but came through three qualifiers at Flushing Meadows without losing a set to face Tursunov, once ranked 20th.
David said: “He can get into the top 50 over the next few years and establish himself. The average age of the top 100 is 28 so he still has six years to reach his peak.
“He was nervous before playing Tursunov as it was the first time he’d made a Slam on his own merits but it will give him a boost.”
Sadly, David and Helen won’t be there to cheer on their son, not least because the proud dad has booked a cycling trip to Europe.
He said: “My wife and I went to Wimbledon and it was a wonderful experience. However, we live in New Zealand and you have to be realistic. We can’t go everywhere.
“It would have been great to be in New York but I had already made plans. A group of us are cycling a couple of the Tour de France mountain stages and it’s been a year in the planning.”