2 & 3 APRIL 2005

Central Athletic Club’s Robert Russell was Scotland’s representative at the prestigious New York Tartan Week 10K run in New York’s Central Park on Sunday 3 April.  As current Scottish Cross Country Champion Robert was determined to wear his Saltire vest with pride.  The race is one of the highlights of Tartan Week and, as a pre-qualifier for the New York Marathon, is a seriously competitive race.  It is therefore great credit to Robert that he came home in first place in an excellent time of 31minutes 8seconds.  Robert will now stay in New York for the remainder of Tartan Week helping to promote Scotland and he will be swopping his running vest for a kilt kindly lent to him by George Shearer, Barnton Street, Stirling.

The weekend also saw a victory for Central’s Toni McIntosh in the Tom Scott Memorial 10 mile Law to Motherwell race in a superb time of 60 minutes 39 seconds.  Lewis Miller ran into second place in the Friday night Carnegie Harriers Pittencrieff Park ‘one mile’ race in 4.55 while Alex Milne continued his rich vein of success with third in 5.02.

The Schools Cross Country International in Denby, Wales also proved to be a stage on which Central’s athletes strode with success.  The races were held over demanding courses in unseasonably warm conditions against the best that England, Wales and Ireland had to offer.  Once again it was a superb run by Matthew Gillespie, in second place, in the Junior race that caught the eye with Matthew covering the 4 kilometre in an excellent 13mins 57secs.  Older brother Michael also put in an excellent performance over the Intermediate course of 5750metres to come home as second Scot in 21mins 31secs.  Rowena Bell-Scott has been steadily improving this season and her run of around 18mins over the Senior Girls 4650metre course brought her home as fifth Scot in 16^th place overall.

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Scottish Women’s League Match 1

Central AC athletes made a major contribution to the Forth Valley Select team starting off with a second place in the first match of the Scottish Women’s Athletic League at Scotstoun, Glasgow. With some 28 clubs contributing towards this high level of competition, it provided strong indications of maturing performances from many of the young Central athletes making their debuts for the regional team.

In the under 13 age group, Dollar’s Rachel Mills was pleased with a second place in the sprint hurdles in a time of 12.60s, a major improvement in her best time despite hitting the penultimate hurdle whilst leading the race. She followed this with a good run in the A 200metres with a 4th place in 30.15s. Jennifer Kean had a 4th place in the B race in 31.05s improving on her times from last season, having earlier had a competitive 100m race in 6^th place in 15.04s.  Lorna Cameron ran a strong 800 metres race to take third place in 2m 35s a new outdoor personal best.

In the Under 15 age group, major improvement in the form of Dee Henderson saw her take a second place in the 200m in 27.92s. Lynn Harvey ran another good 100m with a time of 13.90s in fourth place in the B race. Jennifer Hutchison ran a strong hurdles race to take second place in the B race in 13.21s.   Rachel Hunter faced tough competition in the 1500m and was rewarded with an improvement in her PB to 5.26.04s.

In the senior events, many athletes were unavailable or injured, but Elayne Henderson continued to show her competitive ability with a second place in the triple jump of 11.69m. Her 100m sprint in 13.22s for 4th place was  a good result against top class opposition.  Elayne struggled to get into a rhythm in her sprint hurdles but 4^th place provided good points. Fiona Thompson and Ainsley Normand combined in the 1500m to take good points with excellent early season form. Fiona took 5^th place with a 4m 49.93s and Ainsley was given maximum points for the B race with her time of 4m 53.42s.  Veteran thrower Marjery Swinton had a hammer throw of 22.36m to take 4^th place in the B event.  

The relays provided further opportunities for Central runners to excel. The under 15’s forth Valley quartet won their race with both Dee Henderson and Lyn Harvey combining with athletes from Falkirk Victoria Harriers to win in 52.59s. Three Central athletes, Lorna Cameron, Rachel Mills and Jennifer Kean combined to gain 4^th pace in 58.95s for the under 13 quartet. The senior teams were somewhat cobbled together with the sprint quartet taking 6^th place and the 4 x 400m also managing 6^th place with contributions from Fiona Thompson and Ainsley Normand with veteran Jane Waterhouse filling in as a last minute substitute for an injured runner.

Match point totals were Team West 497, Forth Valley 409, Lothian 403, Tayside  375, Edinburgh Southern Harriers 359, City of Glasgow 332, Aberdeen 320 and Pitreavie 201. With all four regional teams ahead of the four ‘old firm’ city clubs for the first time in a match in this fifth year of the new league structure it demonstrated that the new league set-up has succeeded in shaking up the competition within women’s athletics in Scotland.

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24 April 2005

The challenge for Central Athletic Club’s Track and Field Mens team was to defend their title as Scottish League champions.  This early season meeting was also an opportunity for the athletes to prove how well their winter training had progressed.  Thankfully the athletes generally passed with flying colours and although improvement will be expected as the summer progresses this will be more a honing of performance rather than a rebuilding process.

The meeting was held at Wishaw in picnic-like weather and it was Alastair Hay and John Burke who showed they had wintered well providing strong runs and maximum points in the 5000metres finishing respectively in 15.21.9 and 15.48.0.  Michael Wright made his debut in the 3000metre steeplechase and ran a well judged race to come home second in a AAA’s qualifying time of 10.14.32, while Alex Milne provided his usual reliable run to take second in the ‘B’ event in 11.00.25.  Calum Laing caught the eye with excellent runs in the 110metre hurdles for second in 15.1secs, third in the 100metres in a superb 11.2secs and second in the ‘B’ 200metres in 22.7secs.  Ian McDonald provided excellent sprinting back-up with 11.5secs in the ‘B’ 100metres and 23.2secs in the 200metres.  Double Scottish Cross Country champion Robert Russell moved down in distance and found the fast paced 800metres just a little too hot to handle, however his run of exactly 2minutes produced good points and Robert bounced back with a classy run of 4.03.8 for fourth in the 1500metres.  Alex Milne had little time to catch his breath after the steeplechase before he gamely confronted the 1500metres and again provided a ‘true grit’ performance in 4.34.1.  Luke Stokes will be disappointed with his 800metre run of 2.08.3 but is sure to progress as the season unfolds.  Elsewhere on the track Gary Sweeney and Sean Tough produced useful performances in the 400metres with 54.3 and 56.6 respectively while Colin Christie had a fine run of 63.7secs for the 400metre hurdles and Frank Houston knocked over 2seconds off his run from the previous week to finish this event in 69.0.  Colin Christie rounded off the individual track performances with second in the ‘B’ 110metres hurdles.

In the field events it was the pole vaulting skills of Ron Todd (2^nd with 3.50metres) and Kenny Pearson (first ‘B’ with 3.20metres) who came through the early action well.  Ron then teamed up with Gary Sweeney in the discus with excellent throws of 31.20 and 31.55metres respectively.  Ron also provided good points with a hammer throw of 32.14 metres while Frank Houston again showed improvement for 16.31metres.  Shot Putting by Gary Sweeney and Sean Tough and Javelin by Gary and Kenny Pearson also provided excellent points.  It was Alasdair Page and Sean Tough who tackled a quality high jump competition with both achieving a respectable 1.60metres.  Stuart Mooney showed good early season form in the triple jump and long jump (5.68metres) and both Sean Tough (5.29metres long jump) and Alasdair Page (10.14metres triple jump) were in close contention in their events.

As normal it was it the relays that ended the day and the 4x100metre team of Frank Houston, Calum Laing, Stuart Mooney and Ian McDonald brought the baton round in 45.7 seconds.  The 4x400metre team of Gary Sweeney, Luke Stokes, Robert Russell and Alastair Hay battled well but their earlier efforts made this a tough call as the team came home in 3.47.9.  Overall the Club finished in a highly respectable fourth place and there is optimism that the Team can improve from here.

Elsewhere there were some excellent performances in the gruelling Speyside Way 50Kwith Ian Beattie finishing in an excellent 11th place in 4 hours 10mins 38secs; Cameron Campbell came home in 44th in 5.25.40 while Jim Drummond finished 53rd in 5.50.16.  The Barrhead 5K saw a useful run by Alan Hume for 10^th in 17mins 27secs.  The London Marathon saw some good performances by Central’s small contingent with Toni Macintosh finishing in 2.53.39; David Hay 3.59.40; BrianHodge 4.39.12 and Julie Hay 5.02.45.  The London Mini Marathon saw excellent performances from Central’s three young runners.  In the 15 to 17 year old Boys category Michael Gillespie finished in 23^rd in13.32; Rowena Bell-Scott contested the 15 to 17 Girls race with 36^th in16.28 and Lorna Cameron had an excellent debut run at this level with 33^rd in 17.23 in the 11 to 13 race.

In the Powerade Throws Grand Prix at Inverness.  Under 15 Boy, Ryan Stewart threw the 4kg Hammer  45.70 metres, a new Grand Prix Record and also threw the 3kg Hammer a fine 52.88metres, a new Scottish Schoolboy record by over 15 metres.

Central is in the First Division of the JSB Plumbing Junior League and this provided some much needed experience for many of the Club’s young athletes.  Highlights from the night included a superb dip finish by Conor Kerr to win the Under 11 Boys 800metres in 2.43.8 with Matthew Mills having a good run for second in the ‘B’ event in 2.53.5.  Neil Cameron had an excellent win in the 100metres in 14.9seconds and the 4x100metres team of Conor, Matthew, Neil plus Gordon Milne won with 63.3seconds.  William Bowers showed some good stamina to come home in 5mins.15.3secs in the Under 15 Boys 1500metres.  Fiona Cameron had an improved run in the 800metres in 2.55.7 while Gemma Milne was second in the Under 15 Girls 17.12metres.  Overall the team finished in sixth position but close enough to their rivals to make staying in this Division a real possibility.

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