|
British Junior League – 1st July
The third of four League Meetings, in the Tyne Division of the British Junior League, was held in Middlesbrough on Sunday 1st July and saw the Forth Valley Team take their third second place of the Season, just one point behind .the hosts, Tees Valley Tigers. This leaves the Forth Valley youngsters tied in first place in the League along with Team Glasgow, with all to play for in the last Match of the Season in Jarrow on 29 July.
With unseasonable thunder, lighting and heavy rain the conditions were described as atrocious, however this did not dampen the spirit of Central Athletic Club’s only representative, Jennifer Hutchison. Jennifer tackled the tough 400metre hurdles event for the first time and came away with an excellent victory in the highly competent time of 68.3seconds. With only an hour’s rest Jennifer went on to run 60.4seconds for the 400metres and then supported the Forth Valley Team further with another fine relay leg, an all-round superb individual contribution.
British Milers Club
Alastair Hay and Robert Russell also made long trips into England at the weekend, to the British Milers Club events in Watford. Once again it was sodden conditions that met the athletes however Alastair came home with an excellent 3min 51.9secs timing from his 1500metre run while Robert was just a little off his best in a high quality 10,000metre track race, finishing in 31min 10.13secs.
Black Rock 5
A number of Central athletes tackled the tough Black Rock ‘5’ race in Kinghorn on Friday 29 June. This race includes a run from the town down to the beach, round the sea bound Black Rock then a tough road climb back to the finish. No surprises then the hill running specialist Alasdair Anthony headed Central’s challenge in with fourth place in 23minutes 25seconds just 13 seconds behind the winner and two seconds from third place. Ross Houston had an excellent run for tenth overall in 24.19 and it was good to see Lewis Millar finishing 22nd in 25.35, closely followed by Michael Wright, 27th in 25.47. Martin Crawford proved his credentials with a 27.44 clocking for 54th place while Phil Sweeney (63rd in 28.10), Allan Hume (80th in 28.39) and Liam McCabe (83rd in 28.42) all added to their reputations. Jennifer Emsley showed great form in the Womens race to finish fifth in 29minutes 35seconds over the same demanding course.
|
|
Under 17 and Masters Championships – 15 July
Central Athletic Club’s Sean Reilly showed his strength and endurance qualities as he sped to a fine win in the Bank of Scotland sponsored Under 17 Mens 3000 metres Championships at Grangemouth on Sunday 15 July. Sean went to the front of the race from the gun and shared pace-making duties with Kirkintilloch Olympian’s Matthew Graham for most of the race until he made a significant break with 600metres to go. As Sean cranked the pace up over the last lap there was no doubting the winner as he lifted the Gold medal in the superb time of 8min 45.38secs. Alexander Hendry finished in sixth place in 9min 18.44secs and proved that foreign holidays are not the best preparation for Championship races. Jonathon Tolson also showed character in accepting this challenge and while here he finished twelfth in 10min 30.24secs there is obviously more to come from this determined young man.
The meeting also hosted the Scottish Masters Championships and saw Ainsley Normand taking W35 victories on both Saturday and Sunday. Ainsley’s win in the 1500metres in the fine time of 4min 52.36secs on Saturday was followed by an even more impressive 800metres in 2min 18.42secs on Sunday to make it a double Gold weekend.
There were high hopes for Kyle Henderson in the Scottish Championship Under 15 Boys Pentathlon. Kyle went in to an early lead in the competition with wins in the High Jump (1.74metres) and 80metres hurdles (12.19secs) but unfortunately had to withdraw through injury.
|
|
JSB Plumbing League
The young athletes of Central AC completed their campaign in the JSB Plumbing Forth Valley League with a highly satisfactory third place in the match which also confirmed them with third place overall in the first Division of the League. The six club division saw Central win the four way relegation battle over rivals Lasswade, Falkirk and Dunfermline and West Fife AC, with these last two clubs being relegated.
Amongst highlights in the middle distance events, Rachel Adamson took second place in the mile for under 15 girls with a time of 5.26.1, with Rosie Hastings achieving 2nd in the B race with 5.58.45. In the boys under 15 race, Tom Watson matched Rachel’s position with 5.08.47 and Ross Milne took first place in the B race with 5.10.38. In the under 13 1500m Calum McLaren turned in a fine 3rd place, with Philip Wright achieving 2nd B place. Emily Greenan made her first outing at this event, finishing 5th A runner in 6.04.17 after giving her usual 110 percent. Not to be outdone, under 11’s Roanna Fraser took second place in the 800m with 3.00.42 and just behind her Isla Burns made a massive improvement in her personal best to gain 2nd B place in 3.01.88. Andrew McNally also ran a great race to take second place in his under 11 800m in 2.42. 92 and Dominic Angilioni making his debut for the club at this distance with a spirited run for 5th B.
Amongst sprint highlights Matthew Mills put in his usual spirited performance in the 100 and 200 metres making it fourth place in the under 13 100m with a new personal best of 14.47s. Matthew Smith had a tough race in the under 11’s taking third with 15.07s, with Dean Cartney showing further improvement with 5th place in the B event. Hannah Smith gained good points with her 14.36s timing for third, with Leila McLaren taking 4th in 14.77s. Rachel Adamson took second place in the 200m for under 15 girls with another 28 second run and Rachel Mills looked relaxed as she cruised to victory in the B event. Ruth McCabe had to take on the A event and continued to show improved form with an unconfirmed personal best time. Roanna Fraser ran well for 4th place in the under 11 race with 34.51s, with Lisa Hardman showing good form to take 5th in 36.6s in the B race.
Amongst the debutants, Jack Blackburn took an excellent second place in the under 15 hurdles and ran to 13.89s in the 100m whilst his younger brother, Robbie, ran well in the 200m and showed prowess in the triple jump. Dean Russell took a good 4th place in the B 100m and ran a combative 200m. Combining with Ross Milne, this trio were pleased to achieve third place in the final relay of the afternoon.
In the under 15 age group, the girls almost topped off their afternoon with a relay win, but were just pipped by a strong Edinburgh team, but put in the best run by this age group team of the summer. The under 11 boys team of Dean, Rees, Dominic and Andrew also showed good form to achieve 4th place. In the under 13 girls, the team of Ruth McCabe, Stacey Hardman, Emily Greenan and Sophie Brown overcame the near disaster of a fall at a changeover to carry on and bring home the baton for 8 points in 5th place.
Amongst field events, Sophie Brown won her under 13 high jump with 1.40m, and Rachel Adamson won the under 15 long jump with 4.26m. In the under 11 high jump both Central boys achieved new personal bests of 1.10m, with Rees Houston being credited with 4th in the A event and Andrew McNally 1st in the B. The under 15 boys throws featured Ross Milne gained third place in the shot with 10.27m, with Tom Watson supporting with 7m throws. However, in the discus, Tom reversed the Central placings with a throw of 21.36 to Ross’s 20.40m.
|
|
Airth Games - 28 July 2007
Central Athletic Club had two teams competing in the Scottish Games Association/Scottish Athletics Joint Initiative Under 15’s Relays at Airth Games on Saturday 28 July.
The running order of the relays is male, female, male, female, with each athlete running half a lap on the grass track at the Games, in this case approximately 160metres each. Central’s ‘A’ team of Roddy Irvine, Leila McLaren, Kyle Henderson and Niamh Callan and a younger ‘B’ team of Robbie Blackburn, Julie Cook, Jack Blackburn and Sophie Brown both ran competitively taking the Gold and Silver medals on the day. The race however was no foregone conclusion with Niamh reacting to an Official stepping onto the track during the last leg resulting in her having to slow and almost allowing a fast finishing Sophie to catch her.
The ‘A’ team will now progress to the Relay Final at Pitlochry Highland Games on Saturday 8 September.
National Junior League
Four Central Athletic Club athletes represented Team Forth Valley in the final National Junior League Match at Jesmond. Jennifer Hutchison, Alex Hendry, Scott McDonald and Jonathon Tolson all contributed to an excellent second placing on the day. This should be sufficient to confirm Forth Valley’s place in the Promotion Match in Cleckheaton on Sunday 2 September
|
