It was a hectic weekend of athletics to start the month of May, with a panoply of activities for club members.

Coronation Street capers

Alastair and Linda Cunningham went on another of their tourist trips, this time to take part in the Media City 10k in Salford on Thursday 30 April. Four laps of a 2.5km loop along the quays of the Manchester Ship Canal now made fashionable with media studios (including Corrie!), the Lowry gallery and the Imperial War Museum North. They both picked up their heels in fine style with Ally coming home second V60 man in 47:32 and Linda first V55 woman in 54:19. Full results at https://results.runthrough.co.uk/results.aspx?CId=16487…

Grab a pineapple!

The Sri Chinmoy race at Silverknowes in Edinburgh on Friday 1 May hosted the Scottish Athletics 5k championships. A good crowd of Central athletes stepped up to the line among 700 starters running in a single race following the same course as the weekly Parkrun.

Sri Chinmoy races are organised “to inspire runners, to create a positive experience for each individual and to promote health, happiness and well-being”, but this one has also developed into some of the most intense competition in the road running calendar. Adrian Stott brings his own quirky organisational style, including pineapples as prizes.

Turning first to the chip times in the women’s results, it was Grace Whelan who continued her excellent recent form taking 2nd place in a new PB of 16:09. Not many places behind was Tuscany Wright taking the silver for Under 20 women in 17:29, which puts her in the club all-time top 10. Next in was Jennifer Wetton in 17:46, followed by Ellyn Smith in 18:03 and Amy Gough still feeling the effect of last week’s marathon as she finished in 18:47. Two more of our Under 20s finished consecutively – Scarlett Roy in 19:18 and Leah Brown in 19:20 – with Hannah Hislop a little further back in 23:45. Those excellent results gave further celebration with Tuscany, Scarlett and Leah taking the U20 team gold medals and Grace, Tuscany and Jennifer overall women’s silver.

Among the men there were also some excellent outcomes with Kieran Reilly leading the club home in 10th (14:35), closely followed by Luca Fanottoli in 14:55 – it was good to see him racing again. Recent signing Daniel Sutherland was next in a PB of 15:21, closely followed by Euan Andrews, who clocked an impressive 15:49 in his first venture at the distance, Jack Honeyman in 16:03, Josh Wood 16:09 and Mario Menier in 16:10. Andrew Mawer (V40) came home in 17:09, shaving a few seconds off his PB from last year’s event, as did Kevin Amos with his 17:41 finish. Tony Disley jumped up to near the top of the club V50 rankings with his 18:23 showing, Phil Sweeney gave a good account in 18:57, Colin McCreadie, another with a set of marathon legs trying to adapt to this fast pace, was timed at 19:13 and Kenny Hislop had a big PB with 19:50.

Congratulations to all! Full results available at https://results.perfecttimingscotland.co.uk/Results.aspx…

Hill running

Cumbria saw a cracking weekend of hill running on 1 and 3 May, including the trial races for the UK teams to next month’s European Off-Road Running Championships (EORRC) in Slovenia which include both Uphill Only and Up and Down races.

The first event was the Uphill Only trial held in Keswick. The Under 20s ran 3.8km with 425m of climb following the first part of the main path up Skiddaw. Joel Gillan was running for Central and came home in 4th.

The Up and Down Trial was staged alongside the UK inter-counties and the action took place at Sedbergh with the senior course covering 14.5km with 980m of ascent and the Under 20s running 5.8km with 390m of ascent. Alex Dunlop took on the Under 20 course and finished an excellent 9th among a very strong Scottish showing. Full results for the trial Up and Down and the UK inter-counties are at https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/BritishAthletics/2026/Trial/.

Edinburgh to North Berwick, 2 May

This historic race over 20 miles always takes place a few weeks before the Edinburgh Marathon and a good performance can provide both a physical and a psychological boost. So it was for Calum Phillip on Saturday when he took the win in an excellent 1:49:10 following in the footsteps of past club winners Ross Houston and Jen Wetton. Club support was provided by lead bike rider Elspeth Burton. Full results at https://www.e2nb.org.uk/. Roll on the Edinburgh Marathon …

Balfron 10k

The Mulberry Bush Montessori Balfron 10k was held on Sunday 3 May with a quality selection of Central athletes taking part. The undoubted star performance came from Tuscany Wright who clocked a PB of 37:50 to win the women’s competition and come fourth overall – a fantastic run from an Under 20! Further back in the field there was a gritty intra-club V50 battle going on where at the line Donald Shaw (43:33) edged out Sean Morrison by three seconds. Full results at https://results.perfecttimingscotland.co.uk/Results.aspx?CId=20065&RId=3146

Tay Ten

Perth Road Runners staged their Tay Ten 10 mile race on Sunday 3 May and Jen Wetton, Kenny and Hannah Hislop were there for the club. It’s a very flat course that looks a little as if you parked for Perth parkrun, ran a warmup loop of the North Inch, started the Parkrun but missed the marshal at the far end and kept running with the water on your right until you finally realised your mistake and came back. Jennifer came home with the women’s trophy in a very eye-catching 59:52, only the second woman ever under an hour for the course, while Kenny was rightly absolutely buzzing with his time of 68:43 and Hannah finished in 79:28, about the same pace as her PB for a 10k! Full results at http://www.perthroadrunners.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/TT26-results-1.pdf

Youth Development League Match 1 – Grangemouth

22 Central juniors braved the unseasonably cold Grangemouth weather at the first YDL Match of 2026.

Bank holiday weekend meant we were missing a few regulars, so we didn’t manage to cover all events at this one. That said, our athletes who were able to attend did us proud.

Matilda Shaw made her competitive debut running a great 100m while Joe Hickie took on his first individual competitive event, again in the 100m and ran strongly before delivering a great 3rd leg in the boys 4x100m relay.

I’m expecting we’ll learn of multiple PBs from today once results come through but the biggest take aways were some very happy athletes rediscovering events, trying something for the first time and building the desire to come back and improve on their performances next time out.

Well done Rachel Fullbrook who was recognised by the league for being one of the top ten athletes of the day for her amazing 1500m performance!!!

Apologies to Elspeth and Olivia – I appreciated their graceful acceptance of their team manager being a daftie !

Special shout outs to our only graded official on the day – Bill Gault. And also to our parent helpers – Hugh, Liz (1), Liz (2), Laurie (1) and Laurie (2)

Match 2 is on the 24th of May at Kilmarnock – thanks to those who have already been in touch regarding availability for this one. Anyone else who has an U14 or U16 athlete looking to take part please let Martin Mackinlay know ASAP!

BUCS Track and Field

The British University and College Sport (BUCS) track and field championships took place in Cardiff over 2-4 May and various Central athletes were competing for their institutions.

In the women’s 800m, Niamh McKinlay (Stirling) ran a PB of 2:16.85 in the first round and qualified for the semi-final where an improved 2:16.17 was not quite enough to get her to the final. In the men’s event over the same distance, Jonathan Marshall (Stirling) ran 1:56.89 in the first round and qualified for the semi-final where even a season’s best 1:54.06 was slower than required for the final.

Over 1500m, Fraser Morris (Stirling) ran his heat in 4:20.29 but was unable to progress in strong competition. Logan Beagley (Heriot Watt) made better progress with 3:59.75 in his first showing, and a significantly improved 3:53.63 in the semi, a time that would have qualified comfortably in the other heat but put him too far down the field in his own fast semi-final.

Apologies to any club members we haven’t spotted. Full results at https://meets.rosterathletics.com/public/competitions/details/participants?id=28433&tcId=6284