One of the highlights in the athletic year saw the National cross country championships return to Callendar Park in Falkirk on Saturday 25 February. There are lots more photos and highlights on the club’s Twitter feed, and Facebook pages (Central AC Members and Parents and Central AC) and full event results on https://results.sporthive.com/events/7034529189530153984.
A huge well done to the Senior Men’s team and to coaches Derek Easton and Michael Wright who are the Scottish National XC Champions for the twelfth year in a row. Individual medals for Jamie Crowe (silver), Hamish Hickey (bronze), supported by further outstanding performances from Tom Graham-Marr (7th), Calum Phillip (16th), Luca Fanottoli (20th) and Cameron Milne (23th), brought the team home well clear of rivals Shettleston and Cambuslang.
Among the Senior Women, there was supreme running to finish as 11th team with the club represented by Natalie Stewart, Amy Hendry, Kirsten McStay, Claire Houston, Louise Torr, Laurie Douglas, Jayne Emery, Grace Whelan and Linda Cunningham.
There was a great turnout of Central’s junior athletes with 23 athletes taking part.
Emily Stanford was first home of our Under-13 Girls in 6th place and was soon joined by team mates Ella Tanner and Norah Thompson.
Our Under-13 Boys were led home by Harrison MacMillan who took the individual bronze medal after a tremendous run. Rory was not far behind his brother in 9th place and strong performances from Joel Gillan and Cameron Tanner secured a fantastic 3rd place overall for the boys to earn team bronze.
Niamh McKinlay finished in 22nd place as our first Under-15 girl and was followed home by Tabitha MacKenzie, Katherine Mitchell and Lilia Warden with the team finishing in 9th place overall.
Conall Paterson was the first of our two Under-15 boys in a time of 19m30sec leading home Fraser Kingsley who followed some 25 seconds later.
Mirren Henry had a super run at Under-17 Women coming in 27th. Leah Brown was next across the line in 40th place and was followed closely by Scarlett Roy, Robyn McKerracher and Zosia Paddon with the team taking 9th place overall.
Our junior competition was wrapped up in very convincing fashion with Connor Bell taking gold and the Under-17 Men’s trophy in a time of 20m36sec. Great runs from Alex Dunlop, Aaron Middleton, Scott Hill and Henry Crossley meant the men’s team finished in 7th place overall.
It was the first race for the club for Ryan Martin yesterday, taking the silver medal in the Under-20 Men age category.