A Couple of High Points

It's traditional at this time of year to look back at the old year and comment on its high and low points but I'll stick to the high spots. The first is what was to me the performance of the year by any Harrier of any age in any event and that was Aileen Scott's win in the 24 hour race at Tooting Bec in London. She came through the marathon in about 4 hours, 100 miles were done in just over 19 hours and in 24 hours she covered 117 miles 610 yards. Quite outstanding. Next year the dates for the race are 25th/26th September at Tooting Bec so how about switching from Brampton to London for the occasion? Aileen has of course also run the West Highland Way Race three times setting a pb every time.
For the men, well for me Prasad's win and record setting in the uphill only Aonach Mhor race was the best single performance - and he almost beat the timekeepers to the finish too. The gondola taking the officials up the hill broke down and they sat there for a bit watching the race before it got back into motion and got them to the finish. His feat of running up Ben Ledi over 100 times in a year is also pretty breathtaking. After a year bedevilled by illness he is hopeful of running in the National.
Among the boysI think that Peter Bowman was the athlete of the year with a series of personal best performances and consistently operating at a high level. With steady regular incremental improvements he will get there. He might not have it all his own way in future though with boys like David Campbell and others all performing well. Tony Dolan is in the unfortunate position that while he seems eminently suited to running the longer distances his competitive outings are restricted by what scottishathletics deem suitable. There are many boys in Scotland with this problem but so long as he keeps working away and developing his speed as well as his strength, we'll see success come our way. Among the girls, the one who caught the eye with her regular competition outings and frequent pb's was Roisin O'Shea and her progress over the longer distances should be watched carefully. Rachel Busby was a bit unfortunate in her year with progress impeded by Sever's Disease but she should come good in 2010. There are also many good girls who, if we can keep them working should do us as a club proud - Claire Reid, Diane Nicholson, Kirsty Alexander, Kirsty Kelly and Beth Atkinson are the main names here.
The most intriguing group of the year is the Men's Under 20's. With the talent of Johnathan Farrell and Ryan Nelson any foursome could do well, add in Ryan Nelson and David Brown if he is fit and there is a group of four that could challenge any Senior group of four in any race on the track or over any distance up to 10000 metres. Then next winter Peter Bowman joins in with them and you have five yougnsters that any club would be delighted to have on board. Roll on next year.