Celtic Games - 1 August

Top marks to Kyle Henderson who continued his quality performances with two wins for Scotland in the Celtic Games held in Carmarthen on Saturday 1^st August. Kyle showed his speed with victory in the 100metres in a tasty 11.10secs timing then took the High Jump with a winning leap of 1.98metres.  Louise Anderson also made progress with a consistent series of jumps pushing her Triple Jump personal best out to 11.15metres in a high quality competition.

Scottish Gas/Edinburgh 10k Road Race - 2 August

Well done to Alison Docherty moved further up the leader board in the Stewarts Road Race Grand Prix Series with her second place in the Scottish Gas/Edinburgh 10K Road Race held in blustery conditions on Sunday 2 August.  Alison ran a tactical race, sheltering behind some of the male athletes when running into the wind, but running hard for home over the second half of the race to finish in 37min 15secs.  It was only Hayley Haining, reserve for the 2008 Olympic Marathon, who headed Alison as she left a trail of quality athletes, including Series leader Toni McIntosh in her wake.

800m National Relays - Grangemouth 8th August

Central’s young middle distance runners took on the  National endurance relays in heavy rain at Grangemouth stadium. Club highlight were the progression of the under 13 girls team through competitive heats to take bronze medals in the final.

The under 13 boys trio of Jack Kerr, Dominic Angiolini and Scott Balloch were first into a straight final and found it tough opposition, gaining much experience as they came out seventh place with a 8:37.06 timing for the three 800m legs. The Under 15 boys also had a straight final with the team of Gordon Milne, Sam Fraser and Conor Kerr in the mix for the minor medals for much of the race, and eventually making it sixth in 7:14.32.

The under 13 girls with the biggest fields of the day, and the Central trio had to take on the first qualifying heat in pouring rain, and posted their intentions by winning this in 8:08.37. The final saw the team of Laura Clarke, Roanna Fraser and Phoebe Crosthwaite grab third place and bronze medals as they moved to an even more impressive 8:02.79.

The weekend action also saw a small Central contingent in the under 20 and under 23 championships. In a fierce contest, Andrew Butchart edged team-mate Alex Hendry as they took silver and bronze medals respectively in the Under 20 5000m championship with times of 15:14.18 and 15:18.85. Michael Wright took the honours in the 2000m steeplechase, winning the under 23 title with 6:24.01. Jennifer Hutchison had a tough race in the 400m hurdles for under 20s, running out in fourth place in 67.04s.

England Athletics Under 17 Championships

Highlights from the Champioships in Bedford at the weekend included excellent Silver medal performances from Central's Scott Green and Kyle Henderson.  Scott proved himself competitive throughout the Under 17 Mens 1500metres Steeplechase and missed out on Gold by less than two seconds, not helped by a stumble of the last barrier as he made his sprint for the line, but still finished in a superb 4min 22.44secs .  Kyle soared to a 1.95 metre clearance in the High Jump to lift his Silver although matching his personal best would have seen him on top of the podium. 

Martyn Paterson reduced his personal best to 51.29secs in the heats of the 400metres while Tom Watson was back to something like his best as he came through with a 2min 00.07secs timing in his 800metres heat, having led for much of the race, but missed out on progressing to the Final on this occasion.