Millburn Academy guidance teacher Mairi Campbell remembers Megan Keith as athlete prepares for Olympic debut with Team GB in Paris: ‘She’s a bit of a celebrity already’
Megan Keith’s former guidance teacher at Millburn Academy has said she is the perfect role model for youngsters in Inverness to look up to.
The 22-year-old will become the first person from Inverness to represent Great Britain in athletics at the Olympic Games later this week, racing in the 10,000m final at 8pm on Friday evening.
It has been a meteoric rise for Keith, who has had plenty of success at youth and under-23 level but has taken the senior distance-running scene by storm over the last 12 months.
Such has been the scale of her success that Mairi Campbell, guidance teacher of Farraline house at Millburn which Keith was a part of, says the track star has already become an inspiration for youngsters at the school.
“We just had our S1 induction evening recently, so I had Megan up on our slides and lots of details about her,” Mrs Campbell explained.
“I had some past Farraline pupils, because Ryan Christie was in our house too and so was Alasdair Taylor from Elephant Sessions, so I had slides up of all three telling the parents all about them.
“It covered Megan’s achievements, and I asked the young people if they recognised who she was and all the sporty people knew Megan Keith. She’s a bit of a celebrity already.
“Of course we’re all very proud of her, and I certainly do jokingly take all the credit for her achievements, just like I do for Ryan and Alasdair too! She’s definitely not forgotten.
“Nobody deserves success more than her because she is such a good person even aside from her sporting achievements. She’s the perfect role model really, and an amazing ambassador for the school.”
While the whole of Inverness will be getting behind Keith, Mrs Campbell says she remembers the athlete as an extremely diligent pupil who did not particularly want to be in the spotlight.
“Firstly, Megan was just a lovely pupil,” she recalled.
“She was highly respected by her peers and staff, and she was such a kind, caring, empathetic young person.
“She always had a smile on her face, and was always willing to help out. She was an exceptional student, highly academic, and she could have turned her career to anything really. The world was her oyster.
“One of the things I remember most about Megan was that she never liked attention being drawn to her.
“That was a really nice trait of hers, and that was one of the things I wrote about when she applied to university. She started to make these big achievements when she was at school, and if the class would give her a round of applause she would be mortified! She hated that.
“I would only learn when she was competing in things because she was requesting time off - she was never bragging about things, she just wanted to fit in and be one of the class as best she could.
“She got on with everyone, which is difficult to do in itself. The fact is that her kindness and her empathy towards others was something that really stood out.
“You could see she was a good team player, but she also obviously had that drive and determination in her to just get on with things.”
