Sunday 2nd May. Scottish Young Athletes League - Grangemouth. Central AC athletes faced tough opposition in the first match of the Scottish Young Athletes League at Grangemouth on Sunday.  Of the eight teams in this pool match of the  ‘round-robin’ league, Central girls achieved fifth place, making their almost traditional qualification to the final almost impossible even at this early stage in the season. Local rivals, Falkirk, edged the boys team into fourth place by a mere four points, putting hopes of their first final for a number of years in doubt.

There were many bright points with some spirited performances.  In the under 13 age group Hilary Warkentin won the 800m in a new personal best of 2m 37s and followed with a second place in the 150 metres sprint. Kyle Henderson won his long jump with 4.19m and was second and third in 100m and hurdles respectively. In Central’s most dominant race of the day, Alan Bennie won the 1500m with a time of 5m 15s whilst Anthony Gillespie was the next home just 4 seconds later to win the combined B race, both boys well ahead of rest of the field. In the 1200m, Becky Hay worked very hard to achieve a well-deserved third place in 4m 30.1Ryan Stewart dominated the shot put to win with a throw of 9.18m.

In the under 15 age group, Matthew Gillespie had to accept a second place in a tough 1500m but gained a personal best, whilst Sean Reilly picked up maximum points by winning the B race. He also took a second place in the high jump. Jennifer Hutchinson ran a spirited hurdles race to finish third, with a further half a second off her personal best and Gemma Milne improved her discus to finish third with a new best of 14.04 metres.

In the under 17 age group, Natalie Doyle showed she is in top class form over hurdles this season, winning in 11.8s. In a rare venture over 200m she won the B race in 27.1 seconds. Sarah Hay ran to her usual high standard, but the ‘A’ 200m was even hotter with Sarah managing third place. She had a similar result in the 300m race against top opposition to come third in 42.2s. Jennifer Campbell took the same place in the long jump with 4.54m. For the boy’s team Daniel Jackson smashed his PB to finish only third in the 100m in 11.8s, whilst in the 200m Jamie Cramond showed improving form to place third in 24.8s. Michael Gillespie also broke his 800m PB with a time of 2m08.8s in taking second place. In the High jump, Alasdair Page and Stuart Chalmers took second place and first place in the B event respectively.

Other team members; Rachel Mills, Kate Morris, Ellen Houston, Emma Chalmers, Georgia Quin, Lynn Harvey, Tammy Breingan, Amy Pearson, Dee Henderson, Linda Macadam, Lauren McNab, David Hutchison, William Bowers, Richard Holley, Darren Walker, David Holley and Michael Zacco.

...o0o...

Sunday 9th May. Scottish Women’s Athletic League 1st Match. Scotstoun.Central AC athletes within the Forth Valley team acquitted themselves well in a top class meeting of the Scottish Women’s Athletic League at Scotstoun, Glasgow. Forth Valley finished in a highly satisfactory third place (386 points), behind the might of Edinburgh Southern (495) and the combined west of Scotland squad of Team West (475). Forth Valley team managers were delighted by healthy margins ahead of City of Glasgow (372), Lothian (329), Tayside (353), Aberdeen (339), Lothian (329) and Pitreavie (277).

With competition in many events likely to eclipse the forthcoming district championships, high quality performances were required to finish in the top half of the results in any of the fields. Elayne Henderson led the way in point scoring by winning the senior long jump with a distance of 5.63 metres and taking second place in the triple jump with 11.47 metres and fifth place in 100 metres in addition to shot and the sprint relays. Hazel Dean set a new Central AC veteran’s record in the 3,000 metres in 10m 44.25s, placing fifth in a high quality field. Ainsley Normand took second place in the B race with a time of 11m 16.04s.  Fiona Chalmers in her first year of senior events improved her 800 metres best for the second time in two weeks with a time of 2m15.23s to finish fourth.  Fiona Thompson also took fourth place with a new best time of 4m 52.71s in the 1500m after taking the initiative from the gun to lead the field through the first three laps. Fiona Thompson and under 17 Sarah Hay took part in the finale 4 x 400m relay in combination with Gemma Nicol of Dunfermline and Lyndsey Munnoch of Falkirk. The quartet finished third in a tight finish to set a team record of 3m 53.98s with both Central girls posting splits well within personal best times. Super veteran Marjory Swinton performed well up to scratch in the hammer, discus and javelin to record season’s bests.

In the under 17 age group, Natalie Doyle won her specialist event of sprint hurdles and posted another fast time ahead of her likely rivals for the district and national championships. She also took second place in the 100 metres with a time of 12.94s. Sarah Hay improved her best time to 41.80s taking second place in the 300 metres. Nicola Laing equalled her personal best in the senior pole vault, won the B high jump and took fourth in the B 200 metres. Natalie and Nicola contributed towards a thrilling win in the sprint relay with a time of 50.18s. Jennifer Campbell achieved fourth place in the B long jump and Lauren McNab showed further improvement in form to finish fifth in the B 800m.

Hilary Warkentin, Central’s sole participant in the team’s younger age groups, performed with great credit in a fast under 13 800m race but suffered with the pace to fall back fom being in contention for the lead to finish third but showed another substantial step up in  class improving her recent best by a further 4 seconds to bring it down to 2m 33.52s.   The Falkirk Victoria Harriers and Dunfermeline and West Fife clubs supplied the bulk of athletes for the Forth Valley team in the younger age groups and Central AC youngsters will need to show improved performances in the next month to put themselves in contention for the next match at Meadowbank on June 18^th. Full results...

...o0o...

Scottish East & West Districts Track & Field Championships – 15 and 16 May 2004. Many Central Athletic Club's athletes were once again to the fore in the Scottish East and West Districts Track & Field Championships held at Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh, over the weekend of 15 and 16 May.  An improved entry from the Club resulted in a large haul of medals backed up by many personal bests and some great endeavour of which all the athletes can feel proud.

Morag MacLarty looked to be working back to her best, scoring an excellent 800metres/1500 metres Under 20 Womens East double with gold medals runs of 2.14.60 and 4.43.20.  Fiona Chalmers indicated some excellent progress with a devastating gold medal run in the Under 20 Womens East 400metres, winning in 57.96secs and following this up with a silver medal in the 800metres in 2.16.13.  Meanwhile Fiona Thompson ran into superb silver medal positions in the 1500metres and 3000metres Under 20 Womens East, with runs of 4.44.70 and 10.48.28.  Elayne Henderson rounded off the performances in this age group with a gold medal performance of 5.57metres in the West District long jump and a strong run for silver in the West District 100metres in 12.57secs.

Michael Wright was another Under 20 runner to make progress at this meeting with a fine East District winning performance in the 'killer' 2000metre steeplechase, completing his run in 6.45.74.  Alastair Hay was a close fourth in the East Under 20 Mens 1500metres, finishing in 4.00.29 and will improve on his run in the 800metres (2.01.03) as the Season progresses.

The Under 17 age group also showed that the Club has athletes who can compete at the highest level.  Natalie Doyle caught the eye as she hurdled to victory in the excellent time of 11.53secs in the East District 80metre hurdles, and was a close second in the 100metres in 12.45secs.  Nicola Laing came away with a silver medal for a performance of 2.40metres in the East District Under 17 Womens pole vault.  Stuart Chalmers' return to high jump competition brought the reward of the Under 17 Mens East silver with a fine leap of 1.75metres.  Michael Gillespie is another with a right to be pleased with his performances taking bronze in the East Under 17 Mens 1500metres in 4.17.69 and scoring the excellent time of 2.06.38 in the 800metres.  Sarah Hay was one of the unluckiest athletes of the weekend as she finished her 300metres East race in a personal best 41.18secs for fourth place in a time that would have seen her take silver in the equivalent West race.  Jennifer Campbell was close to a medal in the East District long jump where her best jump was 4.49metres.

The Club were also well served by its Under 15 athletes.  Dee Henderson brought home the Under 15 Girls West District discus silver medal following a throw of 16.62metres.  Dee also won through to the final of the Under 15 Girls 200metres where she finished sixth in 28.70secs.  Ryan Stewart moved up an age group to contest the Under 15 East discus and javelin and was rewarded with silver in the discus with a throw of 20.28metres and a good throw of 25.90metres in the javelin.  Ryan completed the day with a throw of 9.38metres to take gold in the Under 13Boys East District shot putt.  Matthew Gillespie is another who will see few finish in front of him again this season and battled all the way to take bronze in the East District Under 15 Boys 1500metres in a personal best of 4.31.91.  Amy Pearson is another athlete who continues to improve and had good runs to take herself through to the semi final of the most heavily contested event of the weekend, the East District Under 15 Girls 200metres, leaving with a time of 28.80secs.  Jennifer Hutchison also competed well in this event and just missed out on semi-final qualification with a run of 29.01secs.  It was however good to see Jennifer reach the final of the 75metre Under 15 Girls hurdles with a competitive run of 13.3secs.  Gemma Milne's attitude to competition is starting to pay off and although there were no medals this time around Gemma achieved a fine shot putt of 7.39metres.

The Club's Under 13 athletes produced a fine crop of results.  Hilary Warkentin was the pick of this age group with a fine run in the 800metres to take gold in 2.32.86.  Hillary also finished fifth in the long jump with 4.07metres, one place ahead of Becky Hay who finished with 3.91metres.  Kyle Henderson had an excellent gold medal performance of 1.40metres in the West District high jump and a silver medal run in the 100metres finishing in 13.63secs.  Determined sprinting from Martyn Paterson saw him take bronze in the East District 200metres with 28.71secs and Martyn just missed out in the 100metres with fourth place in 13.82secs.  Anthony Gillespie should be well pleased with his hard fought bronze medal in the East Under 13 Boys 800metres with a time of 2.35.65 and David Hutchison continues to make good progress with a personal best of 2.38.30.

The Club's Senior Men also produced some fine results.  Calum Laing's silver medal in the East 110metre hurdles was no surprise but his time of 14.97secs was a deserved breakthrough.  Kenny Pearson showed his versatility with a silver medal in the East javelin (48.75metres) and a bronze medal in the pole vault (3.50metres).  Frank Houston also left with silver and bronze medals following a gutsy run in the West 400metre hurdles (66.35) and a high jump of 1.70metres.  Robert Russell dropped down in distance but won through to the final of a very competitive East 1500metres finishing in a commendable fourth place overall in 3.59.07, leaving some more fancied runners in his wake.  Robert also contested the 800metres, just missing out on a place in the final by the thickness of a vest but posting a personal best time.  Ian McDonald was another to just miss a place in the combined East and West Districts finals but posted personal bests of 11.43secs in the 100metres and 23.28secs in the 200metres.

...o0o...

Scottish Multi-events and Relay Championships. Pitreavie 31^st May.

There was a weekend of action for Central AC athletes at the Scottish Multi-events and Relay Championships at Pitreavie stadium, Dunfermline for both multi-talented individuals and small relay squads in the middle and endurance sprint disciplines

Central’s ladies U20 quartet took the 4 x 400m national championship title with a high quality performance pulling together the best from different coaching groups and disciplines. The win in 3m 55.86s took half a second off a twenty year old senior club record despite never really being pressed by good quality teams from Pitreavie and Kilbarchan. Gargunnock’s Sarah Hay led off with a 59.7s split to give the team with a 5 metre lead and passed to Fiona Chalmers who has broken through into top quality 400m running this season and who pulled the team further ahead with an unofficial 57.8s. Middle distance runner Fiona Thompson held the lead with an unofficial (60.9s) time inside her personal best for the individual distance before handing on a comfortable lead to World Youth Games international Morag MacLarty who pitched in with a 57.1s on the anchor leg to secure the victory.

The under 20 Men’s team pedigree was more at middle and longer distances and the team of Michael Wright, Alistair Hay, Chris Reynolds and Murray MacLarty found strong teams with sprint /400 background much too hot to handle. They finished fourth with 3m 46s, but with the outing likely to help all with their speed in their specialist events.

In younger age groups the main events were three runner x 800 metre relays in which Central athletes have performed well in recent years. The under 13 boys team of Anthony Gillespie, David Hutchison and Alan Bennie worked hard and finished in fourth place in a time of 7m 45.63s. The disappointment of being just outside the medals was added to by the winning team from Kilbarchan just breaking of the Scottish age group record previously held by Central.

The under 13 girls trio of Lorna Cameron, Georgia Quinn and Becky Hay performed well with Lorna leading the race through her first leg and the team finished third in their heat in a time of 8m 35s to comfortably qualify for the final. However, the team could not participate in the final due to an injury in the heats.

The under 15 boys team worked their way through the heats but found the final very tough with teams made up of those at the top of the two-year age groups. The Central trio of Matthew Gillespie, Sean Reilly and David Trotter will improve much by next year and a fourth place in a time of 7m 6.2s was a very respectable result.

A one-off 3,000m Championship for under 17 Men was also run at a weekend away from the main championships to enable the best runners to come together for this tough event and avoid conflicts over doubling up with other events. Michael Gillespie performed well to achieve a new personal best of 9m 16s and finish in fifth place.

Two days of multi-events led to championship medals for the Henderson family. Elayne comfortably won the under 20 seven event heptathlon Championship with new personal bests in the 200 metres  (26.08s) and sprint hurdles (15.51s) contributing towards a points total of 4266. Forthcoming  AAA’s Championships down south will provide competition likely to get even better out of Elayne as she progresses towards senior age-groups nationally ranked in a wide range of events. Brother Kyle took on the under 13 age group and was rewarded with a third place in the pentathlon. Hilary Warkentin was just outside the medals with a fourth place in the girl’s equivalent, improving her high jump PB to 1.36m. In the newcomer under 11 age group Chris Arnold produced the surprise of the weekend with an excellent second place in the three event triathlon.

...o0o...