2022 Athlete Travel Award Scheme Profile – Taylah Paterson

This year 11 local athletes are benefiting from the sportscotland Athlete Travel Award Scheme (ATAS). The Scheme is an ongoing partnership between sportscotland and the participating local authorities in Highlands & Islands - Orkney Islands, Western Isles, Shetland Islands and Highlands Councils.

Orkney Islands Council are extremely grateful to also have a partnership with Stagecoach which allows us to enhance and extend our programme in Orkney.

Name

Taylah Paterson (nee Spence)

Age

23

Sport

Athletics

Chosen field

Sprinting

Main events

60m, 100 and 200m

What inspired you to take up your sport?

I’ve been interested in sport for as long as I can remember. I wanted to do them all when I was young but when it got to an age I needed to choose, I focused on athletics and netball. I did netball at national level and competed for Scotland at Netball Europe in 2015 in the U17 team. When I went to university in 2016, I decided to solely focus on athletics and see how far I could go with sprinting.

Best achievement this ATAS year?

Competing for the first time at the Commonwealth Games in the 4x100m relay team representing Scotland was a dream come true!

Getting there was fantastic as well as myself and my team-mates set a national record at a Diamond League meeting in Birmingham with 44.75s hitting the qualifying standard for the Games – and we did it again less than a month later in Geneva.

What does ATAS support mean to you?

I’ve received incredible support locally from the Council through the Athlete Travel Award Scheme and various businesses, clubs and the Picky Centre have sponsored me. I can’t thank everyone enough for their generosity and kindness to get me to where I am today, it means so much. My family are also incredible! Especially my mum and dad, they have always gone above and beyond to support me and they’ve done everything they can to help me here.