It was a sunny day at Grangemouth as the Scottish Schools Pentathlon Championships returned for the first time in 3 years. The Central AC representation was provided by McLaren High trio Loren Stewart, Connie Bateman and Dara Clark as they tested themselves against the best all-rounders in Scotland’s schools.

Loren and Connie took part in the Group C (age 14) Girls’ Pentathlon event. In the opening 75 Metres Hurdles event they finished almost together with Loren running a big personal best 14.08s and Connie just behind in a near personal best of 14.11s for eighth and ninth places respectively. The High Jump event saw Connie setting multiple new heights as she raised her personal best from 1.17m, finally finishing on 1.27m. This was one of Loren’s strong events and she finished event winner clearing 1.48m to go into seventh place overall. The Shot Put event is a good event for Connie and she threw 7.44m with Loren throwing 6.74m. The Long Jump is another strong event for Loren and she jumped 4.76m to lift herself into sixth place while Connie jumped 4.05m. The 800 Metres event was a hard finish on a hot day. Loren dug in to run 2:36.86 minutes to lift herself to fifth place at the finish with a new personal best score of 2,492 points. Connie ran 3:04.54 for a score of 1,848 points and a respectable tenth place finish.

Dara took part in the Group D (under 14) Girls’ Pentathlon and started well with a personal best in the 75 Metres Hurdles running 14.58s for seventh overall. She followed this with a season’s best 5.46m in the Shot Put, followed by 1.30m in the High Jump. She then produced an excellent personal best in the Long Jump leaping 4.33m for the third furthest in the competition which lifted her into sixth place. She then finished with another personal best in the final 800 Metres event of 2:44.66 minutes to finish in sixth place and a personal best score of 1,983 points.