Central Athletic Club men’s team travelled to Aberdeen on Sunday 21 July to compete in the penultimate match of the Scottish Division One Track and Field season finishing in second place on the day with great performances from all the athletes.
With the normal league format the first track event, the 400 Metres Hurdles, saw the welcome return of Jack Houghton as he strode to victory in the ‘A’ race in 58.22 seconds. David Lindsay again provided valuable points in second ‘B’ place with a pleasing 66.56s clocking. The 800 Metres saw Jack Kerr take control in the ‘A’ race to win with 1 minute 59.78 seconds and likewise Jamie Crowe show good racing instinct to win the ‘B’ race in 2:06. It was good to see Pete Muirhead powering down the track in the 100 Metres to record a close up third place in 11.58s backed up by Kai Ligertwood in seventh place in the ‘B’ race with 12.96s. Michael Wright again proved his class in the 3,000 Metres Steeplechase winning in 9 minutes 48.33 seconds while David Lindsay continued to prove his worth to the team taking second ‘B’ place with 11:17.99. Jack Kerr shouldered responsibility in the 400 Metres ’A’ race, clocking 53.47s for third, and more useful points. The 1,500 Metres saw Jamie Crowe ensuring maximum points for the team with a classy run of 4 minutes 3 seconds in first ‘A’ spot and Michael Wright finishing off his busy day with 4:23 in third ‘B’ place. The 200 Metres saw Jack Houghton back on the track picking up fourth ‘A’ points with 23.62s. The 5,000 Metres saw Central field two Under-20 athletes, Hamish Hickey and Ben MacMillan. Both youngsters showed great determination and were up with the lead pack throughout the twelve and a half laps with Hamish finishing in fourth ‘A’ spot (15:14) and Ben in first ‘B’ (15:17).
In the field the throwing duties were covered, once again, by Donavan Webster and Ron Todd. Donavan won the Discus with a best throw of 35.96m and produced personal bests in the Shot Put (12.31m) and Hammer (36.73m). Ron Todd’s day saw him rake in points in the Javelin (27.2m), Shot Put (8.27m), Discus (26.30m) and Hammer (23.35m) showing a great attitude throughout. Ron had started his busy day by winning the Pole Vault with an excellent 3.40m clearance. Peter Muirhead continues to make progress towards his goal of top performances in the Long Jump and here had a best effort of 7.09m into a headwind for second ‘A’ placing. Daniel Bruce provided Long Jump back-up with a 5.70m effort for second ‘B’ points. Daniel was our sole competitor in the High Jump, clearing 1.55m and three close efforts at the next height. Jack Houghton stepped up in the Triple Jump with one effort, as he rightly conserved energy for other events, hitting 10.76m in fourth.
A much changed 4 x 100 Metres Relay quartet of Daniel Bruce, Kai Ligertwood, David Lindsay and Jack Houghton came through well for third clocking 46.45s. The 4 x 400 Metres Relay quartet of Jack Kerr, Hamish Hickey, Ben MacMillan and Jamie Crowe were competitive throughout taking fourth in a season’s best of 3 minutes 47.75 seconds.
As always there was great back-up from the club’s officials through Stuart MacPherson, John Dickson and Tom McMenemy.
Points on the day were: Aberdeen 383; Central 318; Inverness 259; Shettleston 251; Edinburgh 207; Victoria Park Glasgow 186; Corstorphine 141 and Falkirk 99. Overall positions and points prior to the final match are Aberdeen 24; Shettleston 17 with 797 match points; Edinburgh 17 with 750 match points; Central 15 with 766 match points; Inverness 15 with 763 match points; Corstorphine 8; Victoria Park Glasgow 6 with 520 match points and Falkirk 6 with 450 match points.