Scottish Age group Championships and Superteams championships, 14 & 15 August - Scotstoun.

There was gold medal success for Central athletics club at Scotstoun at the weekend, with winners and other medallists in both the scottish age group championships and the under 13 superteams event.

Scottish age group championships

Tom Watson added to his medal collection taking gold in the under 17 mens 800m in an excellent time of 1:55.13.  This was a very satisfying result for Tom as he managed to beat the athlete who had denied Tom gold at the scottish schools championships in June.  Also on excellent 800m form was Kathryn Gillespie who finished second in under 15 age group in 2:17.20mins behind a high quality English competitor.  Louise Anderson took a brace of medals in the jumps.  She set a new personal best in the Long Jump (5.36m) for bronze then in the Triple Jump lost out on gold by a narrow 2cm margin to take 2^nd place in 11.38m.

Sprinter Sanju Siriwardenu demonstrated his improvement this season narrowly missing out on his first medal at this level in the under 17 100m taking 4^th in 11.87s before placing 7^th in the 200m in 23.99s.  Sara Dick and Agatha Williams-Kelly were also close to the medal positions with Sarah finishing 4^th in the under 17 300m hurdles (50.59s) and Agatha placing 5^th in the under 15 shot behind some strong English opposition with 8.20m.  Caitlin Watson was also on form in the under 15 girls Long Jump setting a personal best 4.78m in spite of a head wind to place 6^th.

Also setting a long jump best was Ryan Calder who took 6^th in the under 17 age group with 5.54m.  In the under 15 girls 1500m Roisin Bonucchi coped well with a fast pace coming through to take 8^th place in 5:15.75.

The club were well represented in the under 15 girls sprints with Kirsty Forsyth just missing out on the finals in the 100m (13.71s) and 200m (27.91s).  Emily Batchelor also narrowly missed out on the 75m hurdles final with 13.36s and Emma Boyle ran well in the 100m (14.36s) and 200m (29.1s).  Hamish Innes qualified for the under 15 400m final in spite of an injury with 56.65s before the injury forced his withdrawal and Emily Greenan performed well in the under 15 800m (2:36.17).

Scottish Under 13 Superteams championships

Central’s other success came in the under 13 superteams event with the boys winning and the girls taking bronze.  The under 13 boys were victorious with Robert Burns (100m 17.07, Long Jump 3.24, Shot 8.29m) Calum Presland (100 - 13.82, LJ - 4.14, SP - 8.01), Tom Chandler (100 - 13.94, LJ - 4.17, SP - 8.42) and Liam McGregor (100 - 15.17, LJ - 3.72, SP - 5.44) all on superb form in the individual events before taking 2^nd place in the relay event.

The girls A team took 3^rd through Megan Ely (100 - 14.93, LJ - 3.90, SP - 5.51), Isla Burns (100 - 14.91, LJ - 3.85, SP - 6.49), Sarah Pearson (100 - 14.29, LJ - 4.19, SP - 6.33) and Alison Todd (100 - 16.24, LJ - 3.57, SP - 6.02) and the B team also performed will through Sophie Parson (100 - 15.5, LJ - 3.75, SP - 4.35), Bethan Evans (100 - 16.14, LJ - 2.88, SP - 3.81), Anna McCallum (100 - 17.11, LJ - 2.56, SP - 3.44) and Shamsa Scott-Angel (100 - 17.02, LJ - 3.22, SP - 3.52).

Mens League  - 29 August 2010

Central Athletic Club’s Mens Team rounded off a near perfect season as they lifted the Division One Trophy in the Scottish Mens League with their fourth win from four matches at a windy Grangemouth Stadium on Sunday 29^th August.  As always the opposition proved strong and individual wins were tough to find so it was hats off to Scott McDonald (14min 53.50secs) and Lewis Millar (15-22.26) who fought off top competition to take victories in their respective A and B 5000 metre races.  Kyle Henderson also underlined his prowess in the Long Jump as he leapt out to a classy 6.88metres for victory. Earlier in the day Scott Green repeated his second place from the last Match in the 3000metre Steeplechase to finish in 9min 44.92secs, with Michael Wright again picking up first place in the B race with a fine 9-57.08 run given the windy conditions.  The 800metres also provided excellent points with Sean Reilly moving through from fifth to second in the final 100metres to finish in 1min 54.60secs in the A race.  Martyn Paterson ran a mature and controlled race in the B 800metres to win with ease in 2min 0.06secs, following on from his 1min 55.9secs personal best earlier in the week.  Sean Reilly and Andrew Butchart tackled the 1500metres where a tactical race finished with a speedy last lap taking Sean through to third A place (4min 5.23secs) with Andrew a few strides behind (4min 5.69secs) to win the B race.

James MacPhail ran strongly in the 400metres finishing third in the A race in 49.65secs with Tommy Ashby taking second in the B race with 50.10secs, exceptional running in the windy conditions.  The short sprints were aided by a strong following wind and Alastair Beaton produced a stylish effort for fourth in the 100metres (11.00secs) while Sanju Siriwardena was always in contention in the B race also finishing fourth with 11.52secs.  Ryan Calder contested the guest 100metres finishing second in 11.96secs.  Kyle Henderson led Central’s challenge in the 200metres and came home strongly in second place in the A race (22.28secs) while Alastair Beaton pushed on strongly throughout the B 200metres to take third in 23.03secs.  Michael Wright and David MacKinlay had earlier started Central’s Track effort in the 400metre hurdles finishing fifth A and B respectively, Michael in 61.38secs and David in 69.62secs, decent times in the prevailing conditions.  Kenny Pearson underlined his worth to the team with another strong run in the 110metres hurdles for a good fourth place (20.21secs).

Gary Sweeney again underlined his worth to the Team with quality performances in the throws, third A in the Shot (12.39metres), fourth A in the Discus (33.70metres), second B in the Javelin (35.14metres) and third B in the Hammer with a best effort of 28.80metres.  Kenny Pearson also gathered in the points in the Field events with fourth A in the Javelin (37.78metres), first B in the Pole Vault (3metres), seventh A in the Triple Jump (10.50metres) and High Jump (1.55metres).  Ron Todd quietly produced more points in the Field with a 3.20metres clearance in the Pole Vault for second A place then throws of 32.52metres for second B in the Discus and fifth A in the Hammer with 29.98metres.    Michael Wright moved out of his comfort zone to record 10.48metres for fifth B in the Triple Jump; Ryan Calder recorded a best of 5.15metres in the Long Jump for sixth B and Alastair Beaton cleared 1.50metres in the High Jump for fifth B placing.

Sanju Siriwardena, Kyle Henderson, Alastair Beaton and Ryan Calder brought the baton home safely in third in the 4x100metres clocking 44.89secs.  The best was arguably kept to last where the young 4 x 400metres team of  Sean Reilly, Tommy Ashby, Martyn Paterson and James MacPhail were never headed and held off the remaining seven Division One teams for victory in the top quality time of 3min 21.53secs.

Shona Malcolm, Meg Sweeney, John Dickson, Hamish Fleming and Tom McMenemy provided the essential back-up of officiating duty as Central finished top Team with 345 points (32 match points) ahead of Edinburgh 283 (24); Lasswade 258 (20); Arbroath and District 246 (17); Aberdeen 245 (25); Pitreavie 232 (13); Shettleston 194 (8) and Ayr Seaforth 142 (5); and all watched by founder member Willie Murray.