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Forth Valley Endurance - 6 May
The latest race in the Forth Valley Athletic Partnership’s Endurance Initiative saw some tasty running in windy and wet conditions at Grangemouth Stadium on Wednesday 6 May. The 800metre race saw nine young athletes line and up and it was Sam Fraser who set off in determined style, leading from gun to tape to win in 2minutes 40.93secs. Scott Balloch brought his fine Cross Country form to the track in taking second spot in an excellent 2min 49.88secs timing. Alana Boggan is a rising talent and here produced a tasty 2min 52.22secs timing with Chris Russell also pushing all the way to the line to finish in 2min 53.56secs. Gary MacFarlane was another to show determined running to finish in 2min 54.84secs just ahead of a strong effort from Kieran Potter (2:55.97). Charlotte Tilley showed good form throughout to come home in 2:56.77 and Shannon MacFarlane underlined her determination with a timing of 3:00.97, as did Aaron Naismith (3.07.95).
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Scottish Superteams Championships, Wishaw 9th/10th May 2009
It was a weekend of triumph for Central Athletics Club at the weekend in Wishaw with athletes battling with torrential rain to contest the senior inter regional cup, the under 15 & 17 Scottish closed championships and the under 13 superteams cup.
Saturday’s superteams event ended in victory for Central AC’s under 13 girls as they were crowned Scottish champions after a dramatic days action. The team of Laura Clarke from Alva, Phoebe Crosthwaite of Crieff and Dollar pair Kathryn Gillespie and Isla Burns were in a class of their own against 30 other teams from throughout Scotland.
The superteams event comprised of teams of 4 competing against each other in the Long Jump, Javelin, 800m and sprint relay. Central girls started impressively in the Long Jump with every athlete jumping at least 3.50m led by Laura Clarke on 3.72m. The javelin event followed with excellent throwing from all the girls. However the highlight of the day came in the 800m where Kathryn Gillespie came within a whisker of the Scottish age group record as she stormed round in stunning time of 2:20.5 mins, closely followed by team mates Phoebe Crosthwaite (2:36 mins), Laura Clarke (2:44 mins) and Isla Burns (2:56 mins). This performance left the team so far in front they just needed to get the baton round in the final relay event to secure victory. However they did better than that, underlining their dominance by winning the sprint relay to finish a huge 50 pts in front the runners up.
lso performing creditably in the superteams were the Central AC boys team of Dominic Angiolini, Matt Smith, Keiran Potter and Malcolm English with 7th place and the girls B team of Amy Gullen, Eilidh Ironside, Sophie Parsons and Roanna Fraser who placed a respectable 13th.
At the same time the under 15 and under 17 athletes were contesting the Scottish age group championships where Central had further success collecting 8 medals including 3 golds.
Kyle Henderson underlined his dominance in the jumps events taking double gold in the under 17 High Jump (1.86m) and Long Jump (6.41m). Scott Green was also on winning form in the middle distance taking a gold in the under 17 1500m steeplechase (4:31.74mins) and a bronze in the flat 1500m (4:11.50 mins). Also jumping to a medal double was Louise Anderson who took silver in the under 17 Triple Jump (10.70m) and bronze in the Long Jump (5.09m). There was further jumps success from Dunblane’s Caitlin Watson who celebrated her first ever Scottish medal taking an unexpected bronze in the under 15 girls Long Jump. Caitlin was lying in 7th place going into the last round where she leapt to a new personal best 4.59m to snatch the 3rd place. The medal haul was completed by Martyn Paterson who took a bronze in the 400m in an excellent personal best 51.51s.
Under 15 Ryan Calder, was impressive in his first major championship reaching finals in both 100m (5th 12.89s) and 200m (6th 27.39s) and taking 4th in the Long Jump (4.69m). Also reaching sprint finals were under 17s Sanju Siriwardenu (100m 7th 12.22s) and Megan Jardine (300m 8th 46.87s). Further success came in the middle distance events with under 15s Conor Kerr (1500m 6th 4:45.82mins) and Imogen Burnell (800m 2:35.54 mins) and under 17s Rachel Adamson (800m 5th 2:22.51 mins), Tom Watson (800m 6th 2:06.55).
The action continued into Sunday when the senior and under 20 athletes contested the Scottish inter regional championships where many of Central’s athletes gained selection for a composite Forth Valley team. Highlight of the day for Central was Ali Hay’s superb victory in the 1500m in 3:48.67. Ali hit the front from the bell and had the strength to hold onto the lead on the line as fast finishers closed behind him. Ali managed to gather himself to take 3rd place in the 800m in an excellent 1:52.88. The 1500m victory adds to the Scottish cross country title Ali won earlier this year and shows he has now reached international class with qualification for next years commonwealth games a realistic target for him.
Also performing impressively was Emma Waterhouse who ran 7:07 mins in the 2000m steeplechase to place second. Andrew Butchard also took a top 3 place with 14:49.93 in the 5000m. Elizabeth Normand showed her consistency in the throws with 4th place in shot (8.32m) and the hammer (35.40m). Central were well represented in the event with Jennifer Hutchison (400m 59.83s), Sean Reilly (1500m 3:56.87 mins), Fiona Thomson (1500m 4:41.22 mins) and the elder members of the team Kenny Pearson (Javelin 38.89m) and Ron Todd (Hammer 32.11m, Pole Vault 3.20m, Discus 29.13m)
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Young Athletes League 17/5/09
Some impressive results on home ground at Grangemouth Stadium saw many Central AC young athletes progress. A new league record by Scott Green in the steeplechase setting the standard for the day with many notable performances in a competition against Lasswade, Falkirk, North Lanarkshire, Nithsdale, Perth and Clydesdale and West Dumbartonshire and Law and District.
The under 17 men started off their campaign with maximum points as Scott Green and Ross Milne took on the 1500m over the barriers in the steeplechase. They won A and B races respectively, with Scott’s time of 4:25.79 a very significant personal best and eclipsing the league record set by Olympic steeplechaser Andrew Lemoncello 10 years ago. In the sprints, Kyle Henderson made a major impact with a win in the 200m, cruising through the line, after joining up with Martyn Paterson in the triple jump where they achieved 2nd (11.72m ) and 1st (11.69m) places in the A and B events. Sanju Siriwardena took second in the B race in 200m in 26.4s. Kyle’s exploits in the high jump saw him just fail to beat 1.95m as he won that event with ease with his best of 1.89m. Martyn Paterson ran another fast time of 53.29s for the 400m, but had to settle for second place with Roddy Irvine winning the B race in 58.51s.
Tom Watson return to peak condition continued seeing him take victory in the 800m with a 2.02s timing with David McKinlay performing well to achieve 2nd in the B race for 2.20s. Tom and Ross Milne scored well in the shot and discus, with Ross’s shot put of 10.10m and Tom’s 22.48m discus standing out for specialist middle distance runners. The finale of the meeting was the 4 x 400m relay, which saw the central quartet of Roddy, Sanju, Kyle and Martyn bridge a big gap to lift second place, as they sped to 3:54.36.
In the under 15 boys, Ryan Calder showed growing competitive abilities with his highlight being a good second place in the 100m with 13.23s. Carrick McClelland gained a second place in the B race and third in the 200m. Sam Fraser showed further progress with a strong 1500m as he took fifth place. Callum Presland nad Graham Bruce took good points in the under 13 boys 100m with a 3rd place in the A race and 2nd in the B race respectively, both recording 15.01s. Graham went on to the 800m where he had lots left in the tank as he sprinted to 2:50.6 for 7th. Ian Davies showed great maturity as he moved through the field in the 1500m to take second place with a new personal best of 5:36s. Malcolm English showed considerable commitment in taking on the 800m, and did well in the throws with fifth place and 5.74m.
In the under 13 girls, Lily Cairns-Haylor showed her strong spirit as she 3rd in the sprint hurdles and then won the nod on the line as a blanket finish of three runners gave her the win in 22.0 in the 150m sprint. Another one with great spirit was Laura Clarke who improved her best in the 800m, with 2:41.7 after taking second place in the 75m sprint and gained good points with her long jump of 3.57m. Roisin Bonnuchi won the B 800m race with 2:45.5 to add to her earlier 3.22m long jump. In the high jump, Lily gained 2nd place with 1.25m with Isla Burns winning the B event in 1.20m.
For the under 15 girls, Caitlin Watson performed to her usual high standard in the long jump with 4.51m and 3rd place and took 4th in the 100m. Alex Harper pulled through to take good points with 5th place in the B race with a leg strain and had to cease competition. Kirsty Forsyth showed strong form in taking the 4th place in 200m with 29.47s. In the 800m, Imogen Burnell and Farren Parkin both achieved 4th place in their respective races in 2:36.1 and 2:46.1 as showed further progress in their events.
The under 17 girls also had some good performances to cheer, with Rachel Adamson dominating the 800m with a win in 2:24.92 . Julie Cook gained valuable points with a second place in the B race in 2:45.36. The 200m saw Sarah Dick take her first step back in competition after injury and made a tentative 3rd place in the 200m with 29.76s. Rachel matched her place in the B race with a speedy 28.72s. The 300m showed some fine running with Megan Jardine taking 4th place in the A race with 47.12s, and Rosie Hastings winning the B race with 47.62s. The relay saw the girls combine well to gain third place in 56.6
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Team Forth Valley – Grangemouth 24th May.
A number of Central’s young athletes competed for Team Forth Valley in the ‘home’ Match of the National Junior League Premier Division at Grangemouth on Sunday 24th May. With some of the UK’s top athletes on show from Gateshead, City of York, Liverpool and Sale as well as local rivals from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Kingdom of Fife this was always going to be a big task for the local youngsters.
The race of the day was the Mens 3,000metres with Alex Hendry pushing the pace from Edinburgh’s Fraser Scott. As the race unwound Alex’s persistence dropped Scott but some strong running saw Edinburgh’s Andrew Crichton move through with around 600metres to go. As Alex and Andrew swapped places in the final lap Central’s Sean Reilly was gaining with every stride. The excitement mounted as the three youngsters hit the final straight and it was Crichton who swept through for victory in 8min 52.16secs with Sean catching his team-mate Alex in the last two metres, the two athletes timed at 8.52.99 and 8.53.12 respectively, a tremendous effort from all three athletes. Earlier in the day Sean had run into third place in the 800metres with a useful 1min 59.26secs.
Elsewhere on the track Kyle Henderson powered round to third in the 200metres with an excellent personal best of 22.3secs. Martyn Paterson continues to impress and here capture fifth place in the 400metres with 52.33secs while Tom Watson was making his debut at this level and weighed in with a tasty 4min 17.33secs clocking over 1500metres. Ross Milne was another having his first outing at this level and tackled a tough 400metres Hurdles and 2,000metres Steeplechase combination picking up fifth and sixth places respectively with times of 69.58secs and 7min 17.15secs. In the Field events Kyle Henderson launched himself out to second place in the Long Jump with a best of 6.78metres but had an even longer effort ruled out for a marginal foul on the take-off board. Martyn Paterson showed his breadth of talent with a 11.90metre Triple Jump.
There were also a number of debut performances from Central’s Under 17 Women with Rachel Anderson’s personal best of 61.59secs for 400metres catching the eye as she came home in third place in the ‘B’ race. Rachel went on to pick up fifth ‘A’ points in the 1500metres with a 5min 2.67secs clocking. This was also Sarah Dick’s first outing at this level showing some useful sprinting in the 200metres with 28.78secs. Jennifer Hutchison had a busy day taking fourth in the 400metres Hurdles in 69.45secs followed by seventh in the 200metres in 26.91secs. Louise Anderson was another to display her speed, coming home in 13.30secs in the 100metres then taking and third in the Long Jump with a useful 5.14metres and fourth in the Triple Jump with a best of 10.73metres.
The Relays showed an excellent representation of Central athletes with Kyle Henderson and Martyn Paterson helping to bring their team round to third in the 4 x 100metres. Tom Watson and Martyn Paterson pulled out all the stops in the 4 x 400metres relay while Louise Anderson and Sarah Dick in the 4 x 100metres and Jennifer Hutchison and Rachel Adamson in the 4 x 400metres helped their teams round to more useful points. Overall the Team finished fourth behind Edinburgh, Glasgow and Sale Harriers but ahead of Kingdom, Gateshead, Liverpool and City of York, with Central’s youngsters proving to be a force within a strong Forth Valley Team.
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Forth Valley Athletic Partnership’s Endurance Initiative
The focus of the Forth Valley Athletic Partnership’s Endurance Initiative moved to Callander Park, Falkirk for a Road Race over an approximate distance of one and half miles. In near perfect running conditions Sam Fraser again stamped his authority on the event from the start and came round in 8min 14secs. Gary MacFarlane also impressed with a confident run to finish in 8min 29secs while Natalie McLeod was first Girl in the useful time of 8min 40secs. Iain Davies underlined his progress coming home in 8.56, as did the determined Shannon MacFarlane (9.02). Drew Meikle ran strongly throughout to finish in 9.13 holding off Keiran Ballard’s able challenge (9.18) with Daniel McGhee (9.19) only a couple of strides in arrears. Aaron Naismith was another to have an improved and able run (9.34) to hold off a strong challenge from Kieran Potter (9.36). Lewis Sinclair stuck to his task well and produced a speedy finish to come home in 10.21 as Caitlin Walker’s run of 10.36 was an excellent effort in the company.
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Polaroid Series !0k and Black Rock 5
There were some tasty Road Running performances from Central Athletic Club’s top performers at the Polaroid Eyewear Helensburgh 10K with second place Men and Women finishers Ross Houston (30min 49secs) and Alison Docherty (36.24). Ross Milne came home as third placed Junior in an excellent 36.45 followed in by veteran runner David Eckersley 37.01. Top Central Finisher in the Black Rock 5 at Kinghorn was Lewis Millar as he finished in a close up fourth place in the fine time of 23min 46secs over this testing course.
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Womens League Report – Meadowbank 30 May
Star of the show at the Scottish Women’s league match at a sweltering Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh was 12 year old Central athlete Kathryn Gillespie. She smashed the 26 year old Scottish record for the under 13 800m, bringing it down to an impressive 2:17.7s, and heading the current UK rankings as a result. The Forth Valley combo of Central, Falkirk and Dunfermline and West Fife took much credit with a team with many new athletes making their debut in a high quality competition.
Kathryn’s run was fierce time trial from the outset, and she took the bell in 67 seconds, to post a time that shows she is in the form to take to even greater heights in coming months. Also performing in the under 13 under Forth Valley colours for her debut was Hannah Worsley who took her hurdles time to 14.8s in the A race, with Roisin Bonucchi who rated 15.2s as she took 5th place in the B race.
In the under 15 girls, Sophie Brown led the way with a 1.50m high jump matching the leading jump, but only achieving 4th place on countback. Sophie had a good shot put taking the B 4th place with 6.5metres. Ahead of Sophie, Agatha Williams-Kelly proved her value to the team with fine shot put of 6.77 and then took on the discus and the A strand hurdles with a time of 14.8s. Kirsty Forsyth was drafted into the team as a replacement and showed her ability with a fine 6th place in the 100m in 14.6s into the headwind and a part in a relay. Imogen Burnell broke her personal best in the 1500m, working through the field with mature racing to finish 3rd in 5:13.3.
Rachel Adamson took on the fierce pace of the under 17 800m, where she showed her improvement in race stature to run to 2:22.0 with 5th place. Julie Cook made a big contribution with shot and discus and then pitched in with a debut 300m in the A race, where she posted a time of 49.6. Louise Anderson again made her mark across sprints and jumps, taking 4th place in the senior triple jump with 10.61m, was disappointed with her long jump for 4th place back in the under 17 ranks and also found the headwind not helping her with a 14.0s timing in the 100m as she took 6th place.
Also debuting were Sarah Dick and Chloe MacGregor in the 300m hurdles for under 17’s where both showed great character to post excellent times with Sarah taking third in the A race in 51.2 and Chloe 5th in 54.4. Sarah went on to take first place in the B high jump with 1.40m.
Hurdling was the starting off point for Jennifer Hutchison, with a 5th placed run of 68.3s in the senior 400m hurdles. She then raced to a time of 26.6, just off her best ever, in the 200m before her contribution to a sprint relay. The senior middle distance races saw Fiona Thompson in a nip and tuck battle in the 3000m where she eventually took second place with a new personal best of 10:09.1. Part of the battle involved veteran superstar Sandra Branney from Glasgow who broke the world record for 55 year old’s in the race, with Fiona very relieved to be able to beat her. The return of Jennifer Emsley to the track was also a pleasing, taking 3rd place in the B race in 10:56.2. Fiona then matched her second place again with a fine run in the 1500m in 4:43. Elizabeth Normand and Norma Bruce made their contribution in the throws, with Elizabeth hammer now consistently improving with her throw of 35.44m and Norma most pleased with her javelin of 23.70m for 6th place.
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Scottish Mens League 31 May
Central Athletic Club’s athletes finished third in Division One of the Scottish Mens League at the second match of the Season held in warm sunshine at Grangemouth.
A couple of late call offs made this a difficult day but this could not stop a double victory in the 1500metres with Dunblane school-boy Andrew Butchart coming through a physical race to win in 4min 6.41secs with Under 17 athlete Scott Green also running superbly to take first ‘B’ place with a 4min 7.79secs clocking. Earlier Andrew had underlined his competence with first in the 800metres ‘B’ with a strong run just 0.35secs outside two minutes.
Under 17 Kyle Henderson continued to impress with Long Jump (6.55 metres) and High Jump (1.95metres) performances taking two sets of ‘A’ second place points, his High Jump equalling the winner but losing out on countback. Alexander Hendry ran a determined race over 5,000metres to come home second in 15min 48.32secs with Lewis Millar also having an excellent run in the hot conditions to take first ‘B’ placing in 15min 57.26secs. Michael Wright was another who ran strongly and determinately throughout as he powered to a new personal best in the 3000metre Steeplechase in second place with 9min 42.47secs.
Ron Todd made another fine points contribution from the Pole Vault (2.80metres), Discus (28.10metres), Hammer (28.28metres), Shot Put (9.18metres) and filled in with a 10.11metre Triple Jump. Kenny Pearson weighed in with two second ‘B’ placings through a Javelin throw of 36.17metres and a 1.60metre clearance in the High Jump. Gary Sweeney again made a fine input with improved throws - 11.74metres Shot Put, 31.66metres Discus, 36.66metres Javelin and 31.33metres Hammer then 24.69secs over 200metres. Multi-eventer Sean Tough piled on the points covering Pole Vault with 3.40metres; 110metre hurdles in 18.02secs and the ‘B’ 100metres in 12.11secs. Stirling University student Shane Malone was faced with covering the ‘A’ 100metres finishing sixth in a high-class race with 11.96secs. Shane also contributed points in the 110metre hurdles with first ‘B’ placing (18.19secs) then leaping out to 11.96metes in the Triple Jump. James MacPhail started the track events off with an excellent second place in the ‘A’ 400metres hurdles (56.59secs), later taking fifth ‘A’ place in a classy 200metres (22.77secs). Donald Ferguson powered round the ‘A’ 400metres in sixth for a tasty 51.72secs clocking while the maturing Martyn Paterson almost matched this with 51.76secs for fourth ‘B’ place. Sprint specialist Ian McDonald put his new found endurance to good use in the 800metres with a personal best of 2min 7.62secs, while Kenny Morrison again ran the ‘B’ 400metre hurdles to finish sixth with an improved 67.91secs. Sanju Siriwardena ran well (12.64secs) to finish third in the Guest 100metres.
The Relays, as always, rounded off the day with the 4x400metres team of James MacPhail, Donald Ferguson, Martyn Paterson and Sean Tough leading into the final straight to be just pushed into second place in an improved 3min 28.67secs. The 4x100metre team of Shane Malone, Sanju Siriwardena, Martyn Paterson and Gary Sweeney were looking good until a dropped baton on the final change over put paid to their effort. There was the normal superb back-up to the Club’s effort from Officials Hamish Fleming, Tom McMenemy, John Dickson and Meg Sweeney.
Points at the end of the day were Edinburgh AC 346; Shettleston Harriers 331; Central AC 296; Arbroath and District 262.5; Aberdeen AAC 254.5; Pitreavie AAC 235; Victoria Park City of Glasgow 213 and Whitemoss AAC 72. Overall positions and match points after two matches are Edinburgh AC 15; Central AC 14; Arbroath and District 11; Shettleston Harriers 10; Aberdeen AAC 9; Pitreavie AAC 7; Victoria Park City of Glasgow 3 and Whitemoss AAC 3.
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