QA 5k, Dunfermline
On the evening of Friday 7 August, Queen Anne High School in Dunfermline hosted the running equivalent of pulling donuts in the school car park as 200 runners in five seeded races ran a flat and fast 5k course of seven laps round the school building. There were handsome cash prizes totalling £1000 on offer to the fastest three men and women with a £500 bonus if anyone set a new course record (spoiler alert – they didn’t).
Our women were well represented and it was Grace Whelan who was first home in fifth overall with her time of 17:17 and when the results from all the races were in Tuscany Wright scored as seventh woman in 17:22.
Our men had their eyes on the money, and Aidan Thompson was just pipped for victory with his 14:22 earning him second place, chased by Hamish Hickey who clocked 14:26 for third place. Hot on their heels were Alastair Marshall (5th, 14:56), Iain Jordan (6th, 15:01) and Luca Fanottoli in 15:18. With seeded races, there is a stab at victory in every race and in Race 4 Jack Honeyman‘s 16:05 gave him third with Andrew Irvine further back in a tight pack to rank eighth in 16:12. Sam Burton had a strong run to record 16:30, Findlay Smith had a fourth place finish in Race 3 with 16:50 and Gavin McCaffrey recorded 18:14. Full results at https://results.perfecttimingscotland.co.uk/results.aspx?CId=20065&RId=3197&EId=6&dt=0
Doors to Manual and Cross Check
The Scottish Charity Air Ambulance raised funds with a Run the Runway 5k at Perth Airport on Saturday 8 August. The course is two triangular laps of the runways with one side of the triangle being grass. Runways are designed to catch the wind, so all in all it’s a much tougher course than you would at first think. Jill Scott was delighted with her finish as first woman and seventh overall in 29:01. Full results at https://liveresults.kitst.co.uk/#scaa5k26.csv
National Combined Events Championship - U16G Heptathlon
The weekend of 8-9 August saw the National Combined Events championships at Grangemouth and we had three U16 girls taking on the heptathlon for the very first time and they all did brilliantly – Rachel Fullbrook, Tessa Gray and Olivia Denholm.
Day 1 saw them take on 80m Hurdles, Shot Put, High Jump and 150 Metres. Tessa was the quickest of the Central athletes in the hurdles finishing in a new official personal best (PB) time of 13.19s and sixth fastest overall. Rachel was ninth in 13.84s and Olivia 16th in 15.55s. Rachel followed this up with the fifth best shot put and new PB of 7.85m whilst Tessa was 19th with 6.43m and Olivia 20th with 5.85m. In the High Jump Tessa was joint fifth with a new PB of 1.42m and definitely the biggest smile of the day. Rachel was joint 7th with 1m39 and Olivia joint 18th with 1.27m. The last event of Day 1 was the 150 Metres and saw all three girls sprint home with new PBs. Rachel was fourth quickest in 20.01s, Tessa eighth quickest in 20.66s and Olivia 20th in 23.17s. At the end of Day 1 Olivia was 19th on 1459pts, Tessa joint eighth on 2153pts and Rachel fifth on 2205pts.
Day 2 saw the girls take on Long Jump, Javelin and 600 Metres. Rachel was the third best in the long jump with her opening jump of 4.89m. Tessa was 11th with 4.34m and Olivia was 19th with 3.96m. In the Javelin Rachel saved the best for last throwing 24.21m for the third best at the event. Tessa had the 17th best throw with her first attempt throwing 13.02m. Olivia threw a PB with her first attempt and then improved on that again with her second attempt which was her best throw of 12.24m. The final event was 600 Metres – Olivia ran in the first heat and finished with the 16th best time 2:01.59 to finish in 19th place overall – Olivia was just one of two 13 year old girls in the field and in completing the competition Olivia has become the youngest Central athlete to finish a heptathlon which she did with 2359pts and 19th place overall – a fantastic achievement! Tessa went in the second heat and fought hard to set another PB running the eighth quickest time of 1:49.00 and finishing on 3355pts and eighth place overall. Rachel went in the final heat and absolutely emptied the tank finishing with the third fastest time of 1:43.78 and fifth place overall with a final total of 3847 points which also places her as 18th in the UK.
All three girls did amazingly and were well supported by their own cheerleading group Grace and Millie 😉 – well done all.
Masters Track and Field Championships
Grangemouth over 8-9 August also hosted the Masters Track and Field Championships and Central Athletics Club had three athletes taking part – Ron Todd M60, David Eckersley M60 and Alan Watt M55.
Alan Watt took on the 6kg Shot Put and was the best in his age category pushing it out to 7.31m. He then took on the 6kg Hammer and again was best in his age category with 22.56m.
David Eckersley took on the 1500 Metres and ran well to finish second in his age category in a time of 5:20.29.
Ron Todd took on 6 events over the two days – he threw the 1kg Discus an incredible 39.35m for first in his age group; the 5kg Shot Put he pushed out to 9.93m for another first place in his age category; in the 5kg Hammer he saved the best to last launching it out to 32.71m for another top placing; despite the cross wind he managed 3.06m in Pole Vault and completed the 100m Hurdles in 19.56s for two more first place finishes. Finally Ron also competed in High Jump and cleared 1.31m for third place in his age category.
Fantastic performances by our older members showing the youngsters that they still have what it takes to compete and demonstrating that athletics truly is a sport for all ages.