Flanders Cup - Belgium 4 July

Central athletes Alastair Hay and Morag MacLarty were part of a select Scottish Team competing in Saturday’s Flanders Cup Fixture, the Leon Buyle Memorial Meeting in Oordegem Belgium.

Alastair trimmed his personal best in the 1500 metres by some two and a half seconds to record 3min 41.91secs only six tenths short of the nomination standard for Scottish Team selection for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

In the Womens 1500metres Scottish Champion Morag MacLarty moved into the lead with 700metres to go and was narrowly beaten in a sprint finish to record a lifetime best of 4min 12.01secs trimming over 3seconds from her best set back in 2005.  This puts Morag at tenth on the All Time Scottish Ranking List

Weekend Roundup -  11 & 12 July 2009

The first running of the European Junior Mountain Running Championships was held in the Austrian Village of Telfes im Stubai on Saturday 12 July with Central Athletic Club’s Scott McDonald and Alexander Hendry representing Great Britain.  Scott came through for a superb fifth placing with Alexander taking thirteenth and with back-up from Banchory Stonehaven’s Robbie Simpson in fourteenth it was an all Scotland Team that lifted Bronze medals for Great Britain.  Scott ended the day as the highest placed Britain from all the Senior and Junior male and female competition.

Morag MacLarty made it through to the final of the Women’s 1500metres at the UK Athletics Championships and World Trials in Birmingham, having to settle for a gutsy fifth place, being edged out in a sprint finish, coming home in 4min 13.24secs.   Alastair Hay was caught up in a tactical race in the Mens 1500metres heats finishing fifth in 3min 48.70secs but missing out on a final qualifying spot by a fraction of a second.

Scottish Mens League - Match 3

Central’s Mens Team was ravaged by a combination of International duty, holidays, late call offs and injury to finish seventh in the third Match of the Scottish Mens League held at a blustery Meadowbank on Sunday 12 July.  Those athletes that did compete proved their worth underlined by Michael Wright and Alex Milne’s attitude in the 3,000 metres Steeplechase with Michael leading from the gun to win in 9min 57.59secs and Alex, virtually straight back from holiday, taking second ‘B’ placing while showing some improved water jump technique.  Kyle Henderson added to his burgeoning reputation with third place in the ‘A’ 100metres in an excellent 10.96secs while Alastair Beaton also showed improved form for third placing in the ‘B’ event with 11.21secs.  Daniel Carruthers also looked good as he strode to a timing of 11.32secs in the Guest 100metres as did Sanju Siriwardena in clocking 11.99secs in the second guest race.  Alastair Beaton went on to score more points in finishing fifth in the ‘A’ 200metres with Martyn Paterson speeding to fourth in the ‘B’ race in 23.98secs.  James MacPhail was another to put his weight behind the team finishing an impressive second in the ‘A’ 400metre hurdles (56.01secs) and fifth in the ‘A’ 400metres (52.34secs).  Andrew Butchart dipped under 2minutes for the 800metres for the first time with a gritty run in the A race finishing in seventh (1min 59.44secs).  Ian McDonald continued his conversion to the longer distance with fifth in the ‘B’ 800metres, 2min 8.16secs.  Andrew Butchart and Michael Wright underlined their commitment to the cause when stepping out on the track for the 1500metres.  Andrew stayed competitive to come home fourth ‘A’ in 4min 6.76secs while Michael, still feeling the effects from his Steeplechase effort, took fourth ‘B’ spot with 4min 25.48secs.  Lewis Millar completed Central’s individual track effort with a characteristic tenacious run in the 5,000metres to finish third in 15min 35secs.

Kyle Henderson has been jumping over 2 metres recently in High Jump competition but, as the run-up became slippery from a rain shower, decided to pull out of the competition after clearing 1.85metres.  Sean Tough jumped out to 5.88metres to take fifth in the long-jump but hurt his ankle in the process so took no further part in the proceedings.  Gary Sweeney and Ron Todd manfully shouldered responsibility for the Throws taking fourth and fifth places throughout while Ron also vaulted to an improved 3.40metres for fifth in the Pole Vault.

Central’s 4x100metre relay team of Sanju Siriwardena, Kyle Henderson, Ian McDonald and Daniel Carruthers finished a close up third in a tasty 45.66secs.  The Team of Michael Wright, Martyn Paterson, Sanju Siriwardena and James Mac Phail contested the 4x400metres bringing the baton round in fifth place with 3min 44.7secs.

Schools International - Antrim 18 July

A number of Central’s athletes had represented Scottish Schools at the Schools International in Antrim on 18^th July.  Kyle Henderson proved to be one of the Athletes of the Match winning the Long Jump (6.79metres) and High Jump (1.94metres) before linking up with his team-mates in the 4x100metres relay where they finished fourth in 44.71secs.  Martyn Paterson also continues to impress and her swept to a 51.86secs clocking for 400metres in finishing sixth.  Martyn then contributed to a superb 4x400metres Relay victory with the Scottish Team clocking 3min 21.16secs.  Louise Anderson was another to push forward her credentials, holding her nerve to produce a new personal best of 10.93metres in the Triple Jump for fourth place overall.  Tom Watson found his Safari holiday less than perfect preparation for International competition but held himself together well to finish the 800metres in 2min 4.3secs.

Round Arran Relay and London Grand Prix - 25th July

Central Athletic Club literally ran away with the Round Arran Relay title on Saturday 25^th July with every athlete winning his leg.  The race is split into three runners taking on legs around the North of the Island and three round the South.  With varying distances for all athletes it was Ross Houston (60mins 29secs), Michael Gillespie (60.35) and David Lynsey (56.30) who tackled the North legs and David Armour (42.43), Alex Hendry (54.20) and Lewis Millar (45.50) who completed the South part of the challenge to give an overall time of 5hours 20mins 29secs, almost 20minutes ahead of the second placed Garscube Harriers.

Meanwhile, Saturday also saw Andrew Butchart and Sean Reilly competing in the prestigious Under 20 Mens 3,000metres as part of the UKA Aviva London Grand Prix.  In hot conditions it was 17year old Andrew who impressed coming home with a superb personal best of 8min 33.71secs, a new Club Record.  Sean continued to pull his Season back on track with a 9min 1.54secs clocking.

Tour of Fife Series 29 July to 2 August

Congratulaions to Lewis Millar who underlined his recent classy form taking on the Tour of Fife Series of races held over five days from Wednesday 29 July to Sunday 2 August.  The Series started with a Road Race then moved through a Hill Race, Time Trial, Beach Race to the final event, a Trail Race.  Lewis was tested on each discipline but ran out victorious in each of the Races to win the overall Series.  Further down the field it was good to see Bill Gault reap the benefit of his recent return to trainign sessions by taking up the Challenge and coming through with characteristic grit to lift the Over 60’s prize.