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Photo by Bobby Gavin<\/strong><\/p>\n By Katy Barden<\/strong><\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t on the long list of target achievements she\u2019d scribbled down as a 16-year-old, but the retrospective addition of \u2018double World Masters Champion\u2019 has sparked a resurgence for West Linton PE teacher Stacey Downie<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The 35-year-old is a Masters athlete and a reigning Scottish Senior<\/strong> champion. The two are not mutually exclusive.<\/p>\n In February 2022, she won the national indoor 400m title, and following her global success over 200m and 400m at the World Masters Athletics Championships<\/strong> in Finland, she took silver in the 100m and 200m at the 4J Senior Championships in Aberdeen in August.<\/p>\n Perhaps most notably \u2013 because this one\u00a0was<\/em>\u00a0a bucket list item \u2013 she also won the 153rd<\/sup>\u00a0New Year Sprint, only the third female athlete to do so since the inaugural race in 1870.<\/p>\n Downie\u2019s first outing at the New Year Sprint was in 2003 and she has competed in the event almost every year since. Hers is a career driven by commitment, dedication and talent but also, frustratingly at times, compromised by illness and injury.<\/p>\n She believes that her relatively late development in the sport \u2013 she earned her first national age-group vest in 2006 and her first Senior vest in 2007 \u2013 has worked to her advantage and contributed to her longevity.<\/p>\n Her first coach, Charlie Russell<\/strong>, a highly acclaimed Scottish Borders-based sprints coach, has also been integral to her success.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u2018<\/strong>I first met Charlie when I was around 12,\u2019 says Stacey.<\/p>\n \u2018He taught me to grow up . . . and he didn\u2019t allow me to get too big for my boots.\u2019<\/p>\n For almost a decade, Russell guided Downie to multiple Scottish, English and British titles from their grass training base in Innerleithen, while she honed her competition skills and learned how to race on the Highland Games circuit.<\/p>\n \u2018I didn\u2019t even consider leaving Charlie when I started at University,\u2019 she continues.<\/p>\n \u2018I trained with him five days per week. I think having that stability, that\u2019s why I did so well. He never put much pressure on me, but he knew when it came to a race I\u2019d always perform.\u2019<\/p>\n NEW YEAR SPRINT WINNER!! \ud83e\udd47\ud83c\udfc6 My third final+after placing 4th and 3rd, this was third time lucky!! \u2014 Stacey Downie (@StaceyDownie) July 31, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Winning the New Year Sprint (in the summer of 2022) was a dream that Downie and Russell, now in his 80s, had nursed for years.<\/p>\n Stacey had considered travelling south to compete in the English Championships but was undecided.<\/p>\n \u2018It was a toss-up between potentially winning something versus performing for times,\u2019 she says. \u2018I spoke to Charlie, and he thought I had a good mark. He said, \u2018If I was you, I\u2019d stay here.<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n She did.<\/p>\n Downie\u2019s renewed focus on achievements over times has served her well. It\u2019s had to.<\/p>\n \u2018Last winter I was looking at all my close friends in the sport and thinking they\u2019d all make the Commonwealth Games team, so why not me?\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n\n
Feels amazing to finally say that!! This has been a dream of mine since I was 16 and I’ve done it!! <\/p>\n
Special to celebrate with coaches who have worked with me all these years pic.twitter.com\/yxnNy7ch2X<\/a><\/p>\n
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