Student becomes sprint champion with father’s help

A STUDENT at The Henley College has become the under-20s Scottish sprint champion.

Kaya Slater, 17, won the 100m and 200m at the national championships held at Aberdeen Sports Village on August 19 with times of 12.01 seconds and 25.50 seconds respectively.

Her father and coach, Roddy, joined her in Scotland, while her mother, friends and family watched videos he had recorded.

Kaya, who lives in Tilehurst, said: “I’m quite proud of myself. My dad and aunt were also Scottish champions. My grandad was born in Scotland and my dad lived in Scotland for most of his life so I want to run for the country. I can’t run for Scotland yet but I can run for GB.

“My dad is my main inspiration. When I was about nine and at a sports day, I kept getting beaten and I don’t like losing so I asked my dad to train me. I also signed up to Reading Athletics Club.

“I did lots of training sessions at Reading and also Bracknell Athletics Club and saw I was really good so kept doing it. I really got into it around the age of 11 or 12.

“I started with shotput, hurdles, high jump and sprint. I was good at shotput but I started to become better at sprinting so got rid of all the others.

“Now I train four days a week in Reading and my dad is still my coach. He also trains me in strength and conditioning. He got into athletics because he also wanted to win at sports day. He wanted to go to the Commonwealth Games but went to Reading University and stopped running after a while because of an injury.

“It is still great to be training with my dad all the time.”

She travelled to Scotland with her father the day before the championships and was confident of doing well. Kaya said: “For the 100m, I just ran to win and I did. Winning the 200m was more of a shock because I didn’t think I would win. The crowd was cheering everyone on, which was brilliant. The stands were full around the whole arena.

“It was a relief to find out I am good enough to run for Scotland.”

After the event the pair went out to eat and Kaya bought a Celtic football kit.

The outdoor running season is now over but Kaya hopes to take part in indoor national championships in the new year.

She is going into year 13 at the college, where she is studying English literature, English language and media at A-level.

She said: “It’s not that hard to juggle both if I make sure I have a schedule and stick to it. I know when to focus on work and when to focus on athletics.

“I definitely want to become a pro athlete. However, I am also a singer-songwriter and I like writing RnB, soul music and poetry. I want to do something like that too.”