MASSIVE Personal Best

Of all the club performances at the weekend, many very good, the best had to be Peter Bowman's 800 metres in 1:57.93 which took two seconds from his best - and he was onlu inside two minutes for the first time two weeks ago, then there was a pb pver 1500 at Stretford, Manchester, and now another pb! Well done Peter. Ryan nelson was second in the B 800 in 2:16. Peter had already run the B 200 metres where he was fourth in 24.85 seconds. Travelling companion to Stretford, Johnathan Farrell had been the A string here and was second in 23.11 seconds.
Johnathan had already been third in the 100 metres in 11.51. Peter Bowman also ran in the 400 metres where he was sixth in 54.9 seconds. All three are Under 20 and were racing against Senior Men. It gets better - B string in the 1500 was Under 17 Man Tony Dolan in third place in 5:02.4 while Ryan was seventh in the A string in 4:59.5. Unfortunately no seniors were available for the 5000 metres race but in the steeplechase David Brown (another Under 20) was fifth in 11:34.43. Sixth in the 4 x 100 metres, the team was disqualified in the 4 x 400 on a technicality. Best of the field eventers were David Brown who was eighth A String in the Long Jump and sixth A String in the Triple Jump and Johnathan Farrell in the Shot Putt where he was seventh A String.
In the points contest the club is now sixth in the nine team league ahead of Kilbarchan, Falkirk Victoria and Dunfermline and West Fife. The team was made up entirely of Under 20 athletes with one Under 17 runner. Very well done, lads, the club can be proud of your efforts.

Final League Match

The last Men's League Match was held at Grangemouth on Sunday with a good turnout of athletes and there were several personal best performances as well as some surprising debuts and a comeback. The revelation of the day was the running of Ross Cannon in the 400 metres hurdles and the steeplechase. He had run neither of them before but following his 63.98 seconds in the hurdles for third place he won the A string steeplechase in 10:54.5 - more than a whole lap ahead of the second placed athlete. Superb. Two of the youngest athletes there on the day - Andrew Cusick and Cameron MacLeod - covered four events each including all three jumps. The Under 17's gained most points in the Triple Jump with Andrew's 11.34 metres being fifth A string and Cameron's 10.72 winning the B String. In the Long Jump, Cameron was fifth in the A with 5.53 metres and Andrew fourth B with 4.76 metres. Cameron cleared 1.50 metres in the high jump. The other Under 17 athlete, Peter Bowman, was third in the A 800 metres in 2:01.89 and in the 1500 metres Ryan Nelson was just outside his personal best with 4:53. Former Scottish cross country champion (2003) Graeme Reid accompanied Gary Dick in the 5000 metres. He would have made two of his former self but made his was round to finish over a minute behind Gary who ran 18:07. Graeme is promising to run in as many of the short relays as he can starting with the George Cummings in September as a start to making a comeback!

The sprinters all performed nobly as well. Johnathan Farrell, protecting an injury ran only the B strings in the 100 and 200 where he was second in the 100 in 11.43 ands first in the 200 in 23.10. Mark Doris had a hard working day starting with the A 100 metres run in 11.45, ran in the 400 metres in 55.34 and finished with a run in the 4 x 400 metres relay. Cameron MacLeod and Alan McColl took part in the guest 100 metres where they were second and fifth respectively in 12.45 and 12.75 seconds. Both relay teams finished fourth of the eight taking part. The 4 x 100 quartet of Andrew Cusick, Cameron MacLeod, Alan McColl and Johnathan Farrell ran a time of 46.55 seconds and Ross Cannon, Mark Doris, Camerin Macleod and Peter Bowman clocked 3:45.50.
It was a good day with what we think was the best league placing of the season but the result was not available when we left. The making of a good team are there with most of the members being quite young (ie U17 and U20) and returning athletes like Alan McColl and Graeme Reid needing only a good winter's training and racing to get them fit for next summer's campaign. A huge debt of gratitude is due to Donald MacLeod for his organising of the team in the face of a multitude of call offs over the summer.

Men's League

It was another good day for the Men's Track and Field team at Meadowbank on Sunday. Not all event results are to hand but those that I have seen are encouraging. In the sprints, Johnathan Farrell had two pb's (11.2 for second in the hundred and 22.88 for third in the 200. Unfortunately the winds were very strong however places and times were good. Anton Russell made his summer debut with 11.9 for the B 100 metres and cleared a creditable 1.55 in the high jump. Andrew Cusick ran 12.66 for the guest 100 metres and leapt out to 10.78 metres in the triple jump. Ross Cannon ran 23.75 for third in the 200 metres and was third in the 400 metres in 51.82. Ryan Nelson ran in the 1500 in 4:58 and Paul Carroll did his usual excellent job in the 5000 metres - if his time really was under 18 minutes then it might well be another pb. Back in the field, Anthony Jones threw the javelin just under 40 metres for the best club throw for a couple of seasons. The 4 x 100 relay team of Johnathan Farrell, Anton Russell, Andrew Cusick and Ross Cannon was fourth in 47.01 and then Ross was in action immediately afterwards in the 4 x 400 metres relay where the team was again fourth in 3:47. The team was Ross Cannon, Johnathan Farrell, David Brown and Ryan Nelson. I have clearly missed some results but they will be on the results age as soon as Donald gets them But well done to all who went to Edinburgh and thanks to Donald for looking after the team: the athletes might think their job is hard but in many ways the manager's job is harder! Well done Donald.