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3 and 4 December 2005
The second of the Derek Easton inspired Central Athletic Club Junior Cross Country League Meetings saw 24 of the Club’s young endurance athletes showing some inspired performances around King’s Park on the morning of Saturday 3rd December.
Once again the most competitive age group was the Under 13 Boys with Roddy Irvine’s sprint finish bringing him through to edge out David Hutchison with Roddy timed at 6min 17secs to David’s 6.19 over a course of a little over one mile. Ross Milne (6.30) again finished third in this age group with Kelly Carruthers (7.10) also showing good form and stamina and Chris and Calum Park running well to finish fifth and sixth in 7.23 and 7.42 respectively. The Under 11 Boys were once again headed by the talented Conor Kerr, finishing strongly in the fine time of 6min 24secs and it was no surprise to see Alexander Couborough coming through for second in 6.54. Gordon Milne showed some improved running throughout this event to take third in the Under 11 Boys in 8.03 and Rory Bain showed good commitment as he came through in 8.30. Under 15, Alexander Hendry, has been underlining his potential in the past few weeks and here he headed the field throughout to win in 6.13, while, at the other end of the age spectrum young Jack Kerr showed his usual gutsy style to finish in an admirable 8.14. Sandy MacLarty continues to make progress in his quest for fitness and finished well with a 7.59 clocking.
Amongst the Girls Becky Hay proved to be the pick of the bunch with a well controlled run to finish first Under 15 Girl in 7mins 10secs. Gemma Milne had an improved run for second in this age group with 7.21 while Dawn Kerr also underlined her progress with third in 7.41 and Lily Eadie rounded off this age group with a determined run in 8.55. Fiona Cameron had a fine run to win the Under 13 Girls race in 7min 15secs with Shona Buchanan running well to finish second in 8.01 and Rebecca Stewart again performing well with an 8.16 finish. In the Under 11 Girls race it was Amy Hendry who took the honours with a confident run to finish in 7.55 with Kirsty Buchanan also showing she has what it takes as she came through in 8.17 for second in this age group. Amy Bilsland found the extra distance a bit daunting but can go on to build on this performance with an excellent third place in 8.27 while Ruth McCabe continues to learn with every race, coming home on this occasion in a competent 8mins 59secs.
Scottish Young Athlete Indoor League – Kelvin Hall, Glasgow – Sunday 4 December 2005
It was encouraging to see a good turnout of Central Athletic Club’s young athletes at the second match of this Winter’s Scottish Young Athletes League held at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow on Sunday 4 December. With places in the Finals up for grabs and many of the athletes taking the opportunity to get much needed competition there were good all round performances on show from the Club’s athletes.
Agatha Williams Kelly was the sole Under 11 athlete from the Club and she showed her normal ‘can do’ attitude as she powered through her 60 metres in 10.46secs and produced a more than competent standing long jump.
The Under 13 Girls also show good attitude towards competition as exemplified by Stephanie O’Neil who produced three personal bests with superb performances in the 60 metres (8.67secs); 60 metre hurdles (9.93secs) and a 4.24 metre long jump. Megan McNab also showed good progress with a 9.59sec run in the 60 metres, 32.7sec for 200 metres and a useful long jump of 3.07 metres. Stephanie Holman was another to pull through well with 60 metres in 9.93secs, a long jump of 2.89 metres and caught the eye with a fine performance in the high jump. Megan Thomson shows a superb attitude to the sport and did well to finish the 200 metres in 40.6secs and achieved a useful 4.55 metres in the shot put. Becky Stevens produced a more than useful 200 metres in 34.2secs and it was good to see Louise Anderson competing well with 9.64secs for 60 metres. Paula Whyte stepped up to the mark in the 800 metres and showed great attitude and superb form to come home in 3.25.6.
Megan Cowle is becoming a useful competitor for the Club and came through with 8.93secs in 60 metres and 31.1secs in the 200 metres in the Under 15 Girls age group. Jennifer Kean also showed good sprinting form for 9.60secs over 60 metres while Sheilagh Adams made a fine debut for the Club with a 10.03secs 60 metres and 34.9secs for 200 metres. There was some superb hurdling from three of the girls over 60 metres with Jemma Stevens (10.55secs), Ellen Houston (10.8secs) and Rachel Mills (10.94secs) all showing fine style. The results of the 300metre series was not to hand at the time of writing but Ellen Houston, Lily Eadie and Becky Hay all showed good form and great attitude as they tackled this tough event. It was the twins Lorna (2.34.3) and Fiona Cameron (2.50) who tackled the 800 metres in this age group with neither looking out of place in this move up in age group. Rachel Mills (5.78 metres) and Becky Hay (5.01 metres) showed their versatility with useful shot putting and Becky underlined her long jumping skills. It was left to Ellen Houston (1.25 metres) and Jemma Stevens to round of the Under 15 Girls challenge with fine high jumping.
The Club has a group of quality Under 17 athletes at present as was typified by Lynn Harvey – 60 metres in 8.74secs and a high jump of 1.20 metres; Jennifer Hutchison 9.93secs for 60 metre hurdles; Dee Henderson – 200 metres in 29.1secs and a shot put of 6.53secs and Rachel Hunter who tackled a tough 800 metres (2.41.3) and 300 metre double and clearly has potential over both distances.
Elayne Henderson and Lauren McNab tackled the Under 20 Womens events with Elayne underlining her Scottish international credentials with fine sprinting, hurdling and jumping for 60 metres in 8.13; 60 metre hurdles in 9.60; a high jump of 1.60metres and a triple jump of 11.43. Lauren weighed in with a 29.8secs 200 metres and a useful shot put performance.
There was no hiding the high standard of Central’s young male athletes. The Under 13 Boys provided the benchmark with Conor Kerr moving up in age group to run the fastest 800 metres for Under 13’s with an excellent 2.38.3 while Roddy Irvine also won his 800 metre race in 2.39.1. Matthew Mills produced some fine sprinting with 60 metres in 9.14 and 200 metres in 30.4secs, well backed up by Neil Cameron with 9.38 and 30.8 respectively and Jack Dawson with a 32.8sec 200 metres. Roddy Irvine underlined his jumping potential with a 1.30metre winning leap in the high jump while Jack Dawson produced a useful 4.73 metre shot put and Neil Cameron came through well with a good long jump performance.
The Under 15 Boys followed up with excellent performances and it was good to see Kyle Henderson back to something like full fitness with 60 metres in 8.03secs; 60 metre hurdles in the days fastest time of 9.61secs and a superb 9.87 metre shot put. Martyn Paterson does not look out of place in this age group and came through for a fine 28.4secs for 200 metres but found the 800 metres a tough challenge, finishing in 2min 49secs. David Scott was another to demonstrate his potential with an excellently judged 400 metres run.
The Under 17 Mens 60 metres saw Isaac Sanchez show some good sprinting form for 8.11secs and an excellent 200 metre run in 26.2secs. David Beaton will be another athlete to watch and came through this time in 9.05secs for 60metres. Scott McDonald has shown great form in cross-country so far this season and adapted well to the indoor track with a useful 800 metre run in 2min 11.3secs.
Team Management duties were superbly carried out by Margaret Taylor and Gordon Paterson and thanks are also due to Shona Malcolm, John Dickson and Gordon McNeil for ably shouldering officiating duties.
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CROSS COUNTRY REPORT – WEEKEND 10/11 DECEMBER
Central AC reinforced their reputation at the top of Scottish endurance racing with a series of individual and team wins at the East District Cross Country Championships at Aberdeen. Both senior teams successfully defended last year’s landmark double victories and there were individual wins for Robert Russell, Alistair Hay, and brothers Michael and Matthew Gillespie.
The Senior Mens’ race featured a whole series of head to head battles with City of Edinburgh athletes, leading to the narrowest of victories in the team awards. Robert Russell never looked to be too troubled as he, Alistair Hay and Edinburgh’s Darren Gauson pulled away from the main field. During lap two Robert put his foot down to break up the leading group, with Alistair dropping back to third with a twenty metre deficit, which through the third lap of the 10,000 metre course he managed to reverse. With a Central one-two for Robert and Alistair in 31m52s and 32m36s, this also gave Alistair the junior championship trophy. After two laps Alasdair Anthony found himself in the next group of a dozen athletes, featuring a core group of Edinburgh runners, but during lap three he put in his characteristic strong last mile and burnt them all off to take fourth place in 33m20s. Ross Houston had a good run working his way up the order to finish 13th in 34m17s. Kyle Cowie(18th in 34m49s) and Lewis Millar (19th in 34m50s) had the important jobs of being the next two counters in the Central team giving everything to push the final Edinburgh counter down the order into 20th place. Point scores were equal with 57 each for both Central and City, with the best placed last counter position being the deciding factor to give the Central team the nod, after many anxious minutes of checking by race officals. The Junior team championship went to Alistair Hay, Kyle Cowie and Michael Wright who finished 32nd (35m32s ) within the senior race. A further contingent of Central runners followed with Davy Armour (48th, 37m02s), Philip Williams (56th, 37m28s), Murray MacLarty (72nd, 38m06s), Alex Milne (76th, 38m20s), Martin Crawford (80th, 38m44s), Robert Hutchison (87th, 39m15s), Philip Sweeney (119th, 42m09s), Hugh Buchanan (120th, 42m17s), Roger Greenaway (122nd, 42m37s) and Stuart Watson (147th, 46m42s). Team manager David Hay finished three minutes clear of Jim Drummond who was in 162nd place to round off a great Men’s team day.
The Senior ladies team race was also a nip and tuck affair in a race won by Edinburgh’s Freya Murray from hill running star Lyn Wilson. Emma Waterhouse led home the Central contingent in 11th place in 26m25s, closely followed in by Hazel Dean (12th, 26m33s ) and Claire Waterhouse (15th, 26m43s) to take the team championship from the Aberdeen home team by a single point. Further strong support came from Fiona Thompson (21st, 27m23s) and Ainsley Normand (23rd, 27m27s), with Jane Waterhouse winning her personal battles with other veteran runner rivals in 32nd place, (28m26s) and Louise Harris taking 66th place.
The Under 15 boy’s race was another Central dominated affair with Matthew Gillespie taking the honours in 15m24s and seeing off the challenge of team-mate Sean Reilly who this time had to be happy with bronze medal in 15m50s. Alexander Hendry showed further improvement to finish 9th in 17m12s and Anthony Gillespie was 20th in 18m44s to give Central the team championship gold medals.
In the Under 17 men’s race the fine win by Michael Gillespie was somewhat marred by a heart-breaking injury to Scott MacDonald. Scott, in his first season of cross country, has been putting real pressure on Michael throughout the start of the season and looked comfortable close behind Michael in the lead group of three as they went into the final lap. It was not to be as his knee gave way and he had a trip to casualty instead of celebrations. Michael came home in 22m33s, with bronze medal team awards the reward for good runs by Graham Harvey (12th, 25m21s) and David Devlin (20th, 26m24s).
The Girls Under 15 saw a great turnout by a Central contingent of seven runners, rewarded by a silver team medals led in by triathlete Eilidh Hargreaves (10th, 19m42s) and then Kate Morris (12th, 19m52s), Catriona Buchanann (13th, 20m14s), Rachel Hunter (23rd, 21m16s), Gemma Milne (30th, 22m45s) and Claire Tunaley (33rd, 23m39s). Becky Hay’s day ended with a few tears as she had to pull up with a leg strain, an unfortunate result for a young lady at the heart of the revival in endurance running in the junior girls’ ranks in the last two years.
The under 13 age group for girls saw another solid run by Lorna Cameron (7th in 14m11s) with her sister Fiona (15th, 14m57s) running well to pull her way up through the field and Mairi Gillespie just behind her (16th, 15m10s) with a gritty run after a number of weeks out of training.
The under 13 boys had the reward of silver team medals, Central’s group of runners packed together well at the front end of the field and finishing in close order led in by youngster Tom Watson showing his potential (8th, 12m53s), David Hutchison (9th, 12m54s), Roddy Irvine (10th, 13m02s), Scott Green (11th, 13m06s) and Ross Milne (13th, 13m24s).
Jennifer Emsley had to make a dash to run in closer West Championships after a morning of University exams and was rewarded with 8th place in the senior race. Using her home club designation of Arran Hillrunners, she was also first Junior.
With the Championships also acting as trials for East team for the Inter-District match at Holyrood in January, which will also feature international runners including Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, Cental’s runners will be keenly waiting for forthcoming team announcements.
Morag MacLarty added another European gold medal to her summer’s tally with the GB Junior Ladies (under 20) team at the European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg, Netherlands. With a characteristic final run-in Morag came through from a mid-way placing of 18th to a sensational sixth place in 15m42s, to be second Briton home behind the silver medal winning prodigy Emily Pidgeon (15m25s), shortlisted for BBC’s young Sportsperson of the Year.
Extract from Ukathletics press release - http://www.ukathletics.net/
Morag MacLarty (Central AC), the European Junior 1500m Champion and selected for Scotland in the 1500m at next spring’s Commonwealth Games, finished a superb sixth, 17 seconds behind Emily Pidgeon – a massive improvement on her sixth place in the European Trial at the UK Cross Challenge in Liverpool 15 days earlier. Morag said after running a particularly powerful second half of the race to move through from 18th: “Brilliant! I just wish I could have caught two more girls but this gives me a bit more confidence. I was a bit worried after the Trials because I didn’t run well. It seems for the last few Championships, I squeeze into the Teams and then run quite well when I get there. The Trials are a means to an end.
“And this is such a good team. Even though we were fancied to win, we are a young team so nobody put too much pressure on us, which helped.”
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Report – 17 and 18 December 2005
An elite band of Central Athletic Club’s athletes used the recent Indoor Open Graded Meeting at Grangemouth to hone their speed. It was Kyle Henderson who caught the eye with excellent personal bests in the Under 15 Boys 60 metres (7.98secs) and 60 metre hurdles (9.57 secs). Under 15, Stewart Ardrey made his debut at this meeting and did not look out of place in winning both his 60metre heats in 8.69secs and then storming to 8.57 with his second run over the distance. Stephanie O’Neil was just a little off her blistering best in the Under 13 age group but still produced a 8.92 timing in the flat 60 metres before returning a 10.35 clocking in the hurdles.
Ian McDonald looked strong as he sped to a 7.41 timing in the 60 metres and Frank Houston pushed back the years with an 8.10secs in the 60metres and 11.36secs over the high hurdles.
Elayne Henderson had a satisfactory night with good runs in the 60metres and a best time of 8.16secs followed by a 9.61 hurdles.
Elayne Chases Her Dreams
Central’s Elayne Henderson has been offered the chance of a lifetime to pursue her dream of athletic glory. Elayne has recently teamed up with international coach Eric Simpson to move her athletics to the next level and a visit to Scotland by world level coach Bruce Longden, former coach to Daly Thomson and Sally Gunnell, opened up further horizons for Elayne.
Elayne said ‘Eric and Bruce are good friends and they discussed my development as an athlete and offered the chance to train with Bruce. As Bruce is based in South Africa this would mean leaving home and although feeling a bit nervous, but with the backing of my mum and family, I decided to take the plunge.’
The ‘plunge’ has included trying to get the finance together and Elayne has been delighted by the response of people around her, from the Club to the local community and individuals. Especially helpful were the Central Scotland Area Institute of Sport based at Stirling University and her grandfather.
Elayne has been working hard on her own behalf coaching and organising fund raising events. One of the largest companies in the area, Beatson’s of Alloa also backed Elayne to pursue her dream.
Elayne was delighted with the support ‘I really can’t thank people enough for the help they have given me and I would like to thank them all publicly for their support. I will attempt, over the next few years to justify their belief in me.’
The trip to South Africa starts in early January and Elayne will train there for three months coming back to compete in the UK in the summer. Meanwhile, local coach, Eric is looking forward to seeing how Elayne blossoms after working as a full time athlete in a warmer climate.
Pitmedden Forest Race – 17 December 2005
A small contingent of Central’s athletes travelled to the Pitmedden Forest Race in Fife on Saturday 17 December. In the cold crisp conditions it was Alasdair Anthony who battled well to lead the Central runners home in second place in 34.51.
Alan Hume also had a good run for 26th in 39.09 ably backed up by Will Hensman in 40.07 and Fraser Purves in 40.15. The Buchanan family enjoyed their day out with father Hugh finishing in 42.48 while daughter Catriona (49.46) just out sprinted mum Andrina (49.53) over the latter stages.
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Christmas Handicaps 2005
With Handicaps covering some five races on Thursday 22nd December the cold weather seemed to disappear as the participants were cheered on to greater efforts.
It was Mandy Gillespie who had bravely taken on the task of working out the handicaps for the four races for the younger athletes and was rewarded with some close races. The first Boys race was over some 900 metres and saw Sandy MacLarty making full use of his start as he was never headed on his way to a useful 3min 17 clocking. Kelly Carruthers found his handicap just too tough as he came through in 3.25 closely followed by the fast finishing Gordon Milne, while Ewan Hamilton and Stewart Ardrey both found the longer distance quite tough but both are making useful progress. The ‘short course’ 900 metres Girls race saw a finely judged run by Dawn Kerr taking first place closely followed by Fion Hargreaves, Kirsty and Shona Buchanan with Eilidh MacLeod, Joanna Laing, Aimee Bilsland and Rebecca Stewart all showing useful form.
The interest moved quickly on to the longer course Boys race over 1500metres and it was Anthony Gillespie who ploughed his way through the field to win by one second from fast finishing Roddy Irvine and Ross Milne with Alexander Hendry only a few strides behind. Conor Kerr continues to underline his potential with another good run finishing close up with Alan Bennie and Alexander Couborough. David Hutchison looked a little out of sorts but should be happy with his overall time of 4min 58secs on this course. The evening was completed by the 1500 metres Girls race and it was a determined run from Gemma Milne that lifted first prize in a close finish from Becky Hay and Kate Morris. Twins Fiona and Lorna Cameron followed closely by sisters Mairi Gillespie and Kathryn Gillespie proved this to be the best handicapped race of the night.
Meanwhile there was the normal large turnout amongst the adult group, handicapped by Coach Derek Easton, and it was Sean Reilly that seized the honours with Alastair Hay taking the fastest lap on the night and Morag MacLarty creating a new female record for the course.
Boxing Day 2005
There was a good turnout of Central Athletic Club athletes at the traditional Boxing Day Fun Run at Gartmorn Dam. Excellent conditions met the runners and with many of the adults deciding to take the opportunity for a longer training run it was left to the Club’s youngsters to compete for top spot on the 3 mile trail around Gartmorn.
It was Alexander Hendry’s first run round the dam so he can probably shave some time from his impressive 18min 29sec clocking in first place. Claire Waterhouse was first female home in 19.37 with Ross Houston going on to complete two laps in a noteworthy 37.32. Gordon Adam was also new to this route, coming home in 19.40 closely followed by young Conor Kerr (19.57) and a fit looking Derek Houston (19.59). Catriona Buchanan has been improving all year and underlined her fitness with a 20.55 timing ahead of another two of the Club’s stalwarts, Kelly Carruthers (21.15) and Gemma Milne (21.31). Dawn Kerr was another to show good form and pace judgement finishing in 24.02 while a grouping of Sandy MacLarty with Anthony and Kathyrn Gillespie finished well in 25.16. Kirsty Buchanan strolled home in 25.37 while Graham Campbell’s 25.55 clocking underlined some potential. Jack Kerr was well supported by Shona Buchanan with both finishing in 27.02 only a few strides ahead of Alison and David Houston who were both happy to finish so comfortably. Shona Malcolm admirably performed sweeping up duties encouraging Sheilagh and Katie Adam to finishing a much longer run than either had previously attempted.
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