Young athletes League - 6 July

Central AC’s younger athletes clinched promotion from Division Two of the Scottish Young Athletes league in the final match of the main series at Linwood. Going into this final match in second place in the league, the team sneaked through with a fifth place on the day enough to keep ahead of rivals after being badly affected by holidays and late call-offs. A much reduced team put in some fine performances.

Rosin Bonnuchi led the team off in the unfamiliar territory of a sprint of 75metres to take sixth place in 11.7s with Lisa Hardman also sixth in the B race in 12.3s. Both girls took more to their conventional 1200 metres, with Roisin taking 3^rd in 4:23.3 and Lisa also matching this place with 4:49.1. Emily Greenan and Amee Bilsland battled well in a strong 800m field with Emily achieving 2:47.0 for 4^th place and Amee 2:55.6 for 3^rd in the B race, before the girls also running well in the 200 metres.

Under 15’s had some strong performances with Sophie Brown winning the high jump with 1.45m, Louise Anderson increased her long jump personal best  to 4.81m in taking second in that event In the 100m, both girls benefited from a favourable wind to gain fast times, with Louise second in 13.3 and Sophie matching this place with 13.7 in the B race. Rachel Adamson won the B 200m, after Louise posted another second place in the A race. Rachel ran an improved race in her 800m to take second in 2:30.8 with Julie Cook running strongly with 2:39 to take 3^rd place in the B race. The relay team showed lots of quality as they gained third place in the best relay field of the day.

Under 17’s Georgia Quinn gained third with 13.7s in the 100m, with Lorna Cameron winning the B race with 14.1s, Georgia went on to gain fourth  in the 200m and Lorna achieved 46.1 for a 300m with 5^th place.   

The boy’s team were strengthened by three late replacements who all made a major contribution. Alan Bennie returned to his first competition for two years  and  came second in the Under 17 B 100m with 12.5s, supporting Kyle Henderson as he took second with 11.3s in the A 100m. Kyle won the long jump at a canter with 6.41m, with Alan taking first in the B event. Scott Green took on the 800m and 1500m, and whilst the 800m proved a little hot and he took 2:05.4 for 3^rd place, he won the 1500m with 4:23.0. Alan Bennie made his next mark in the 800m by winning in the B race with 2:13.9s.

In the Under 15’s, newcomer Billy Elliot won was Central’s top scorer on the day gaining a maximum 24 points. He won both 100 and 200m B races with 12.7s and 26.9s backing up the growing experience of Sanju Siriwardena who gained two second places  in the A races with 12.3 and 25.5s.The High jump was also a revelation with Billy taking first place in the B place with 1.40m before having to leave to do the 200m, with Roddy Irvine came third in the A high jump before he too headed off for the 400m where he teamed up with Sanju to record 4^th place in 62.5 in the A race and 62.1 for 1^st in the B race for Roddy and Sanju respectively.

In the under 13’s, it was newcomer Alex Semple who provided the suprises , sharing the winning points in the high jump with 1.45m, and taking a fine second place in the 800m with 2:36.0 with Andrew McNally followed up to gain first  place in the B race with 3:37.9, both boys gaining excellent points in the long jump.

Match points on the day were South Lanarkshire 573; Lasswade 336; Perth Strathtay 328; Dumfries and Galloway 318; Central 314; North Lanarkshire 252; Falkirk  222 and Clydesdae and Dumbarton 216.

JSB Plumbing Forth Valley League

Central AC young athletes successfully fought their way out of relegation places in Division 1 of the JSB Plumbing Forth Valley League by finishing fourth at the final meeting at Grangemouth Stadium.

Final  results were Edinburgh 567; Pitreavie 547; Lasswade 431; Central 411; Livingston 306; Corstophine 187; with accumulated match results over 4 matches at 23,21,15,10,9 and 6 in the same order. With two teams relegated to Division 2, Central’s development team should be congratulated on a fine result, with the assistance of only a few of Central’s more seasoned competitors.

As ever the under 11 age group were very competitive, with Isla Burns leading the way with a second place in the long jump with 3.42m, with Jennifer Downie recording third place after earlier making a second place in the 100m with 15.55s. In the 200m, Kim Wilson recorded an impressive 3^rd in the 200m, a 5^th in the 800m and was 3^rd in the shot put. Anna Clelland performed with great sprit in the 100m and long jump and shot. An impressive relay team made it a fine third place.

In the under 11 boys Jack Kerr came 4^th in the 800m and achieved a fine third in the B 100m when acting as late stand-in. Jack Bauchop made it 5^th in the 100m with 17.62s, gained fourth in the high jump. Robert Burns scored a top class win with his 6.12m shot put.

In the under 13 girls, Caitlin Watson found the sprinting tough with a third place in the 100m, in 14.28s and second in the 200m, whilst her high jump she came fourth. Lily Cairns-Haylor made it a third place in  the B 200m  and 5^th B with her first javelin competition. Lisa Hardman made it more points as she took on the 100m to take 6^th place.  Emily Greenan coped well with the re-arranged 1500m to record 5:46.1 for 4^th place before she took on the javelin where she gained 11.45m for fourth place.

In the under 13 boys, Carrick McLelland ran a good race to take fourth in the 200m with 31.6s, with Connor Shearer supporting in the B with third place. Connor ran with Dean Cartner in the 100metres where they achieved 16.39s and 17.05s, with Dean also gaining valuable points in the long jump. Alex Semple achieved a good time in the 1500m with 5:18.61 for fourth place and threw 17.63m in his first javelin competition for the same placing.

In the under 15 boys, Sanju Siriwardena was second in the 100m with 12.52s, with Neil Cameron 4^th in the B race with 14.26s. Neil achieved further good points with his hurdles and triple jump. Billy Elliot teamed up with Gordon Milne to take maximum points in the shot put with 8.86m and 7.79m respectively and then Gordon went on to run the mile race with Corin Metcalfe where they gained fourth and 2^nd places in A and B events.

Rachel Adamson ran the sprint hurdles with a highly competent display to take 5^th in 14.0s and then was second in the mile race, where Stacey Hardman gained third B race placing  with another fine run. Rachel and Stacey also came 3^rd and 4^th in the long jump with 4.23m and 43.27m respectivley. Leila McLaren made it her first race back with 6^th in the 100m in 15.13s, whilst Kayleigh Murphy made her debut with 5^th in the B race with 14.95s. The discus featured with good results for Kayleigh and Julie Cook who came fourth and third, before Julie went on to achieve 5^th in the 200m. In the spirit of the event, three Central girls teamed up with Laura Robertson for Edinburgh to run to a non-counting third place in the 200m.