Scottish Young Athletes League 2^nd May

Central AC athletes made a tremendous start to the 2010 Scottish Young Athletes League as they won the first match of the season at Wishaw.  Strong performances across all the age groups contributed to Central’s victory over the other seven teams in the League and leave the Club well placed with two further matches to be played.

The under 13 boys dominated their age group winning 10 of the 15 events with all of the boys finishing in the top three in their events.  Callum Presland led the way with victories in both the 75m hurdles and the 200m achieving personal bests of 13.38s and 27.64s.  He was ably supported by Cameron Taylor who was first in the 75m hurdles B race and Tom Chandler who took top spot in the 200m B race in a personal best of 29.3s.  Success on the track continued with Iain Davies comfortably leading home the 1500m race in a time of 5:06.61, less than a second outside his personal best, and Jack Kerr taking full points in the 1500m B race.  Valuable points were also added by Scott Balloch and David Hughes who each finished third in the A and B races of the 800m, and by Liam McGregor and Cameron McCorgary in the 100m sprint, again each finishing third in the A and B races.  In the field events, Robert Burns and Callum Presland achieved the two longest throws of the day, 7.84m and 7.64m, both personal bests, to take maximum points in the A and B events of the shot put.  Despite jumping a new personal best of 4.12m Tom Chandler just missed out on first place in the long jump A event, but Cameron McCorgary completed a successful day in the field taking the long jump B event with a personal best of 4.08m.  Finally, Tom, Iain, Liam and Callum rounded off a day of achievement with an emphatic victory in the 4x100m relay.

The under 13 girls got off to a flying start in the 75m sprint with Sarah Pearson taking second place in a sparkling time of 10.88s, missing out on first place by four hundredths of a second.  In the B race Megan Ely grabbed top spot in a time of 11.16, a personal best.  Two more second places followed in the 150m race with Bevhan Trevis taking the honours in the A race in a time of 22.34 and Isla Davidson in the B race in a time of 21.99, both personal bests.  The sprint success was completed by the 70m hurdles with Sophie Parsons finishing a respectable fifth in the A race and Sarah Pearson coming home first in the B race in 13.19, her second personal best of the day.  The 800m races proved more competitive with Isla Burns taking third place in a tight finish to the A race and Bethan Evans taking fourth place in the B race.  In the only field event for this age group Megan Ely leapt to a new personal best of 3.94m to seize third in the long jump A and was followed by Beth Gallagher completing a successful day with fourth in the long jump B and third in the 1200m.

For the under 15 boys Alex Semple ran an impressive 1500m in a personal best of 4:47.17 to take second place.  Malcolm English also finished second in 800m B race in a time of 2:46.51 and turned in solid performances in the field to finish third in the discus B and fifth in the shot put A.  Jonathan Eckersley contributed with a fourth place in the 800m A race and the Discus A, and added further useful points in the 200m A race.  Cameron Smith appearing for the first time for Central had a notable fourth place in the Long Jump A and respectable finishes in the 200m and 400m.  Graham Bruce managed to run both the shortest race of the day, the 100m in a speedy 14.52s, and the longest race of the day, the 1500m B race.  Neil McCallum also made his debut in the 80m hurdles with an encouraging fourth place and achieved a creditable fourth in the long jump B as well as running the 100m, before combining with Alex, Graham and Cameron to snatch fifth place in the relay.

The under 15 girls dominated the track events in their age group winning six out of the 11 events.  Kathryn Gillespie continued her outstanding form with a commanding performance in the 800m race finishing well clear of the rest of the field in a season’s best of 2:18.30.  She was well supported by Laura Clarke who won the 800m B race in 2:36.69.  Eilidh McCorquodale also lead all the way in the 1500m A race completing it in an excellent time of 5:07.28, her team mate Tara Walls taking second place in the 1500m B race.  In the sprint events, Kirsty Ann Forsyth was on top form with personal bests of 13.36s in the 100m and 27.91s in the 200m giving her first and second place respectively in the A races, while Caitlin Watson backed her up in the 200m B race with a first in 29.71s and Emma Boyle took second place in the 100m B race in 14.44s.  The individual track events were completed with the 75m hurdles in which Lily Cairns-Haylor add useful points in fourth place in the A race, and Emily Batchelor achieved a new personal best of 13.89s to take second in the B race.  The girls added further success in the field events with Caitlin Watson and Kathryn Gillespie both managing second in the shot put A and B events, Caitlin and Emily both achieving third in the high jump events, and Kathryn and Laura Clarke managing fourth in the discus A and B.  The day was completed, however, with another commanding victory by the 4x100m relay team made up of Caitlin, Emma, Emily and Kirsty.

For the under 17 girls it was the field events which brought the greatest success.  The day began with Louise Anderson leaping to victory in the long jump A with a jump of 5.05m.  Sarah Dick then stepped up to the circle in the shot put A to throw 7.39m putting her well ahead of the rest of the field.  Sophie Brown ensured that Central obtained maximum points in the shot put by throwing 6.46m to take first place in the B event.  Sophie then turned her attention to the discus A where a throw of 16.37m gave her third place, while Laura Nicholson took first place in the discus B.  On the track Chloe McGregor was in great form winning the 80m hurdles in 13.59s and coming a close second in the 100m B race and third in the 300m B race.  Louise Anderson also took second place in the 100m A race in a time of 13.77s and third place in the 200m B race.  Sarah Dick was second in the 300m hurdles and third in the 200m A race.  Laura Nicholson also took fifth in the 300m A race.  The girls finished the day with fourth in the relay.

The under 17 boys excelled in the sprint events with Sanju Siriwardena winning the 100m by one hundredth of a second in a time of 12.11s and the 200m in an equally impressive 24.28s.  Tom Watson dominated the 400m A race from the start finishing in a new personal best of 51.01s.  This was matched by Ross Milne taking the honours in the 400m B race in a time of 56.77s.  Ryan Calder also pitched in with sterling performances in the 100m and 200m B races to achieve third place in each.  However, he went one better in the long jump B event to finish an excellent second, with Sanju taking fourth in the long jump A.  In the middle distance races, Tom Watson, having just completed his 400m race, immediately returned to the track to turn in an excellent second place in the 1500m B race.  Kyle Petrie in his first 1500m race also shone with a fine third in a time of 4:57.93, having already notched up a fourth place finish in the high jump.  Gordon Milne covered the 800m in a competitive 2:24.24, before turning to the field events to throw 19.39m in the discus A and 9.79m in the shot put B to take top position.  His brother, Ross, however, managed slightly better in the shot put A with a throw of 10.58m, which was enough for second place.  Given the success in the sprinting, it was not surprising that Ryan, Tom, Ross and Sanju took top honours in the final race of the day, the 4x100m relay, although they were chased to the finish by North Lanarkshire who were only three hundredths of a second behind.

 Elsewhere some of Central’s senior athletes were in action. Morag MacLarty showed showed she is in good form when winning the British Universities Championships 1500m with a good early season 4:20.24s. Emma Raven, competing at the North East counties Championships at Gateshead, broke the Scottish record for 2000 metres steeplechase with a solo run of 6:36.17 by over 6 seconds to head the UK rankings and achieve 7^th place on the UK all-time list.

Ross Houston proved he had recovered from his fine run in the London Marathon in winning the Penicuik 10Kilometre Road Race, on Saturday 8^th May, in the excellent time of 31min 48secs.  Also on Saturday Hugh Kerr and Alan Gall took on the punishing 23 mile Cateran Trail Race, both finishing with commendable times, Hugh in sixth with 3hours 40min 20secs and Alan eleventh with 4hours 7min 10secs.

Alison Docherty tackled a high class field in the Ignis Asset Management Women’s 10K Road Race in Glasgow on Sunday 9^th May finishing eleventh overall and fifth Scot with 36min 45secs.  In the same race Jennifer Emsley had a good run to finish 17^th overall (38.58) closely followed by Lyndsay Morrison 18^th (39min 15secs). 

Central AC Press Report – 15/16 May 2010

There was a busy weekend in Wishaw for many of Central Athletic Club’s athletes with the Scottish Closed Under 15 and Under 17 Championships on Saturday 15 May and the Inter Regional Championships for Under 20 and Senior athletes on Sunday 16 May.

The highlight of Saturday’s competition was a mature performance from Kathryn Gillespie who lifted the Under 15 Girls Closed Championships 800metres title with an emphatic victory in the fine time of 2min 23.58secs.  Louise Anderson was another to shine as she lifted two Silver medals in the Under 17 Womens Long Jump (5.29 metre personal best) and Triple Jump (11.11 metres).  Tom Watson also prospered in the Under 17 Age Group as he strode home to take Silver in the 800metres with a strong run of 1min 57.75secs.  Perhaps the broadest smile of the day was from Hamish Innes, who knocked over 3 seconds off his personal best in the 400metres as he reduced his time to 55.16 secs on his way to taking the Under 15 Boys Bronze medal.  Eilidh MacCorquodale was another to take home a Bronze medal as she battled to a 5min 5.07secs timing in the Under 15 Girls 1500metres.

There was further excellent endeavour from a number of Central athletes including Sanju Siriwardena who progressed to the 100metres Under 17 Mens Final where he posted a 12.03secs run.  Kirsty Forsyth progressed to the Under 15 Girls 100metres Final, finishing fifth with 13.55secs, then fought through her heat and semi-final of the 200metres, finishing seventh in the Final, recording a best of 27.77secs to round off a very busy day.  Kathryn Gillespie also tested her speed in the 200metres coming through her heat in 28.54secs. Ryan Calder showed some good sprinting form recording 12.46secs in his heat of the Under 17 Mens 100metres.  Chloe McGregor ran the Under 17 Womens 80metres Hurdles, finishing fifth in the final with a new personal best of 13.20secs. Under 15, Emily Batchelor tackled a 75metres hurdles and 200metres double recording useful times of 13.47secs and 30.44secs respectively, while Agatha Williams-Kelly completed her 75metre hurdle test in 14.94secs.  Emily Greenan had another good run in the Under 15 Girls 800metres recording 2min 34.24secs.

Sunday’s Inter Regional Championships saw Emma Raven’s virtual solo run slice some thirteen seconds from the Scottish Record for the 2000metres Steeplechase to win with 6min 29.58secs, pushing herself to within a second of the UK best for the distance.  Alastair Hay had a strong run to lift the 1500metre title in 3min 52.56secs repeating his victory from 2009.  Alastair could have made this a double but had to settle for Silver in the 800 metres (1.51.27) where he left his sprint finish just too late for victory.

It looked as though Morag MacLarty would take the Womens 800metres having led the race throughout but missed out to Sarah Kelly’s strong finish as both dipped under the Competition Best, Morag finishing in 2min 6.68secs.  John Newsom was another who had to settle for second place as the 10,000metres doubled up as the Scottish Championships.  John led through 23 of the 25 laps as he and former Champion Bobby Quinn dropped the remainder of the field.  Bobby left his effort to the second last lap and although John didn’t allow the gap to extend he just couldn’t get back on terms, still finishing in an excellent 31min 17.23secs.

Ron Todd was another to lift Silver with a 3.20metre clearance in the Pole Vault, also covering Discus (28.02metres) and Hammer (28.62metres) duties.  Under 20 athlete Andrew Butchart produced an excellent run in the 1500metres with 3min 56.31secs, his exciting sprint finish sufficient to take him through to Bronze.  Another Under 20 athlete Scott Green showed his resilience as he also lifted Bronze in the 3,000metres Steeplechase with a strong run of 9min 40.54secs in his debut run for the distance.  Kyle Henderson is yet another Under 20 athlete who can compete with the top Seniors and here covered three individual events with a best High Jump clearance of 1.89metres, a Long Jump best of 6.60metres and 11.27secs in the 100metres.  Martyn Paterson further underlined the contributions of Central’s Under 20 athletes as he lowered his 400metres personal best to 49.88secs as well as running a classy 23.03secs in the 200metres.  Finally in the Under 20 Age Group, Craig Ritchie showed good form in the 400metres hurdles to finish in 60.03secs.  Fiona Thomson (4min 38.52secs) held off some strong opposition in finishing fourth in the 1500metres and Michael Wright contributed more useful points in the 3000metres Steeplechase with an excellent 10min 16.71secs clocking.

Ross Houston tackled the Loch Leven Half Marathon on Saturday 15 May, running head-to-head with Perth Road Runner’s Mike Carroll.  The pair had finished close together in the recent London Marathon with Ross prevailing on the occasion.  However Ross had to give way to Mike this time around with Mike winning in 68min 12secs and Ross just 6secs back in 68.18, with these two fine athletes over 4 minutes ahead of the next finisher.

Loughborough International 23 MayThe Central AC trio representing Scotland in the Loughborough International all came out on top in the annual fixture showcasing British talent in this early season opener. In a mixed day for the Scottish team, which came fourth overall, the Central talent came home with three of the four Scottish track wins in the match, further adding to the plaudits for the club’s highest numerical contribution to Scottish track team. Alastair Hay took the honours in the 1500m from a packed race pack filled not only with representatives of England, Wales, Great Britain under 20’s and a talented Loughborough University squad, but many guest athletes. He broke away at the bell to hold off all efforts to chase him down to win in 3:45.90s.   Morag MacLarty emphatically beat her opposition with a fine race, taking the race away after 800 metres and winning in 4:16.37 an excellent time in spite of sweltering conditions. Emma Raven also had a solo run to win her 3,000 metres steeplechase in 10.26.11as she broke away in the early stages of race and held off the chasers, setting a new personal best at this distance.

Closer to home Alison Docherty was first Woman home in the Helensburgh 10K , part of the Polaroid Eyewear 10K Series with a time of 36.26, with Lindsay Morrison improving her personal best with third place in 38.15 and   Jamie McDonald ran 34.24 for fifth in the Men’s Race.