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AAAs Under 17 Championships, Sheffield, 16th & 17th August 2003. Central athletes performed with distinction at the UK (AAAs) under 17 championships held in Sheffield last weekend. This is a prestigious event bringing together the top athletes from around Britain. Many athletes who make their mark at these championships go on to Olympic success.
Top position came from Dunblane girl, Nicola Laing who cleared 3.00m to finish fourth in the Pole Vault. This is a tremendous achievement in an event which she only started in the last year. Her training partner, Kim Skinner, a Falkirk Victoria Harrier, took silver with 3.60m behind UK record holder Hannah Olsen (3.70m). Nicola also performed well in the 80m hurdles running 12.2s in her heat though the pace was too hot for her to progress to the final.
For Scottish Schools 300m champion, Sarah Hay, this was her first experience at this level. The Stirling High pupil ran well in her heat to finish second and progress to the semi final. She finished fifth in her semi final in a time of 41.80s and narrowly missed out on making the final. Nicola and Sarah will both compete in the same age group again next year and will have gained valuable experience from this trip.
Elayne Henderson was unable to repeat her medal winning exploits in the previous weekends Heptathlon championships but still performed creditably. She finished fifth in the Triple Jump (11.18m) and sixth in the Long Jump (5.35m).
AAAs Combined Events Championships, Birmingham 9th/ 10th August 2003
Multi talented athlete Elayne Henderson can now claim to be one of the top young heptathletes in Britain after winning a bronze medal at the recent UK (AAAs) combined events championships in Birmingham. The 16 year old Coalsnaughton girl finished third in the under 17 Womens Heptathlon against a strong field which brought together 30 of the best athletes from around Britain.
She opened with a 13.17s 80m hurdles to place 9th but after a personal best clearance of 1.65m in the High Jump to win the event and move up to 3rd in the overall standings. Elayne never left the top 3 from that point on. She threw 8.72m in the shot and ran 27.5s in the 200m into a strong headwind to hold on to 3rd place overall at the end of the first day. After a 5.28m long jump, to start the second day, she moved into the silver medal position. She followed this with a superb javelin throw of 28.55m which is a huge 6 metres improvement on her previous best.
Elayne then faced the final event, the 800m, still in second position. Elayne was 500 points behind the leader so victory was beyond her. Also the athlete just behind her was an excellent 800m runner with a best of 2:16mins, giving Elayne no realistic chance of hanging on to silver. She coasted round in a modest time of 2:47mins to finish in a new personal best score of 4147 points, which secured the bronze medal and a place on the podium.
For Elayne, a fifth year pupil at Alva Academy, this is a remarkable achievement in only her second heptathlon and follows on from her victory at the Scottish Championships earlier this year. She is now ranked in the top 6 under 17 women in Scotland for 100m, 100m hurdles, Long Jump, High Jump, Triple Jump, Javelin, Shot put and Heptathlon.
Elayne has further cause for celebration after being selected to represent Scotland in the Heptathlon in the home countries combined events international in early September. The event brings together the top heptathletes and decathletes from Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland and will take place in Deeside in North Wales. Elayne will compete in the under 20 age group which will provide a great challenge as she will be the youngest athlete in the field.
Her coach, Kenny Pearson, has also been selected for the event. He has had several international call ups as an athlete over the years but for the first time will travel as the Scottish national team coach. He may yet be competing as well though as he is reserve athlete for the senior men’s decathlon team.
JSB Plumbing League Final. 2nd August 2003.The final meeting of the JSB Plumbing League, incorporating Divisions 1 & 2, took place at Pitreavie on Saturday 2nd August.
Although many athletes were missing due to holidays, Central fielded a good team that managed to consolidate the Club’s position as 3rd in Division 1 thus retaining their presence in Division 1 next session.
For the Under 11 Girls, Emma Chalmers was 3rd in the ‘A’ 100m and Mhairi Gillespie was 2nd in the B 100m. Emma was also 5th in the 200m and 2nd in the long jump. Mhairi was also 4th in the ‘A’ 800m and 2nd in the ‘B’ long jump. Brooklyn Warkentin was 3rd in the ‘B’ 800m and Hannah O’Connor did well in the 200m and the shot putt. The Girl’s team came 3rd in the relay.
For the Under 11 Boys, Martyn Paterson won the ‘A’ 200m, but, after an unfortunate stumble at the start of the 100m, did well to pick up and finish strongly. Martyn also won the ‘B’ high jump. Kyle Henderson won the ‘B’ 100metres in an excellent time of 15.0 sec. He also won the high jump and the shot putt. David Hutchison came 2nd in the 800m, and 2nd in the ‘B’ shot putt. Roddy Irvine was an excellent 2nd in the ‘B’ 200m. The team ran strongly to gain an excellent 1st place in the relay.
In the Under 13 Girls, Dee Henderson ran well to gain 3rd in the ‘A’ 100m and 2nd in the ‘A’ 200m, as well as competing in the javelin. Laura Jane McDonald ran well in the 100m and the 200m. There was a good set of firsts in the A & B 800m from Hilary Warkentin and Becky Hay. Hilary also contested the javelin. The team came 3rd in the relay.
The Under 13 Boys section, Matthew Gillespie gained excellent points for the Club, by competing in the 100m, 200m, long jump and javelin. Anthony Gillespie gained 4th in the ‘A’ 800m and Alan Bennie gained 2nd place in the ‘B’ 800m and also contested the 200m and the long jump. Ryan Stewart did well in the javelin with 2nd place and an excellent throw of 21.03.
Only Amy Pearson and Tammy Breingan represented the Club in the under 15 Girls section. Amy competed in the 100m, gaining an excellent 3rd place, the 200m and the shot putt. Tammy took part in the same events, gaining 2nd in the ‘B’ 100m and 3rd in the ‘B’ 200m.
The Under 15 Boys were also under-represented. Michael Gillespie won the 1 mile event - a rare chance to compete at this distance. He also competed in the 200m and the javelin. Dylan Smith ran well in the ‘A’ 100m and Callum Johnston ran well in the 200m (27.4 secs) and the mile.
Thanks to all the athletes who have represented the Club in the JSB Plumbing League. The following have been selected for the President’s Select match at Pitreavie on Saturday 6th September:-
Bridge of Allan Highland Games -2nd August 2003 Following on from his imporessive runs at the Alva Games in July, Martin Crawford produced further fine performances at the Bridge of Allan Games. In the 800m event and running off a handicap of 70m , he took the Gold medal position in a time of 1m51s.
In what seems to have been a good race, the handicapper appears to have been fairly on the ball in the 400m race. In a blanket finish, a time of 49secs off a handicap of 29m was less than 1 second behind the winner but only good enough to give Martin fourth place.
Fellow club member, Ewan Laing, competed in the 90m, 200m and long jump. His times and distances are eagerly awaited
Energy Zone Series One Mile Race. 1st August 2003. Whilst many club members would have been relaxing on the couch on Friday evening, club stalwart Ewan Gault was flying the flag for the club in the latest race in the Energy Zone Road race series at Pittencrieff, Dunfermline. An impressive run saw Ewan take the gold medal position with a time of 4m 42sec.This appears to be the best time for the mile distance in the series this year.
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August.