Schools rugby star Robbins storms to impressive win in New Year Sprint What an exciting sporting future the precocious teenager Ben Robbins could have, whether it is in athletics or rugby. The strongly built 16-year-old George Watson's College rugby winger, who scored two tries in the recent Brewin Dolphin Scottish Schools Cup final but has put his age-group international rugby career on hold for a year to concentrate on the track, reaped an immediate reward when he decisively won the 144th New Year Sprint held during the National Hunt Meeting at Musselburgh Racecourse yesterday afternoon. In doing so, he also cruelly dashed the hopes of the 26-year-old Gemma Nicol (Dunfermline) that she might at last become the first female winner of the historic professional handicap. Nicol, however, was far from dismayed. Her form suggests a fine season or more to come and her prize money of £450 was a nice bonus towards paying for a new house which she has bought in anticipation of her marriage to fiance Ryan Sharp, probably in 2014. After yesterday morning's cross-ties the betting was finely balanced between the two who had dominated the heats on Monday and maintained their form yesterday. But Robbins (Edinburgh AC) was the 4-6 favourite by the time he swooped to take the Eric Liddell memorial gold medal and £4,000 first prize, with Nicol, a six-times finalist and a former runner-up, on offer at even money. A 400 metres specialist with a best time of 49.11 secs, Robbins, who is assiduously coached by Dave Goodall, covered the 110m on the gradually drying grass into a fresh, though unmeasured wind in 12.14 secs from his start of 7.5 metres. To achieve his target for 2013 of selection for the British team for the World Youth Championships in Ukraine in July, he needs to run the 400m in 48.0 secs, a tough, though certainly not unreasonable task on the much faster tartan tracks where his impressive strength will be an asset. A surprise 5-1 runner-up was his teenage clubmate, the Charlie Affleck-coached Portobello High schoolboy Keiran Reilly in 12.29, with Nicol (16.5m) third in 12.32. But Nicol had always insisted she was doing no special preparation for the race and indeed should be applauded for competing. Only two weekends previously, the two times Commonwealth Games 400m competitor had put in a demanding endurance training session of eight 500-metre runs, with a 10-minute recovery which bodes well for her chances of making the team for a third time for Glasgow 2014. "I still see my eventual future in rugby," said Robbins, who does not believe it will be possible to do both sports as Liddell once did so famously. He agreed, however, that his decision to take a year out from the Scotland youth squad had already paid dividend. "I guess it's paid off," he said. "It's not about the money," insisted coach Goodall. It's just about winning the event and being a part of athletics history - he's been concentrating on his 400 metres training and only started speeding up in the last four weeks - in fact, he did no training on the grass and only used blocks for the first time on the grass for the cross-tie [which he won in 12.34]. When I saw he'd been allocated a start of 7.5 metres I just thought that's a hell of a good mark.