Junior Prizewinners 2011

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Photographs courtesy of Pauline Campbell

CLYDESDALE HARRIERS JUNIOR NEWSLETTER

TRAINING

During the summer holidays training continues as normal for the following sessions:

Tuesday 7.00pm to around 8.30pm - St Peter of Apostle High School, Track and Field (Session fee £2)

Thursday 7.00pm to around 8.00pm - Lusset Park Old Kilpartick, Fitness/Endurance

You will see an improvement in your performance and technique if you continue to training during the summer and attend both sessions.

If any parents have some spare time we are always looking for volunteers to help out at training or at the matches please let the Head Coach Phil Dolan of your availability.

STORNOWAY

We have been invited to compete in a triangular match along with Aberdeen AAC in Stornoway on the 1^st of September 2012, which would be for all age-groups. 

The trip would entail missing school on the Friday as it would involve a coach trip to Ullapool on the Friday (5 hours plus stops) to catch the 16:30 ferry arriving in Stornoway 19:15.  The return trip on Sunday would be ferry from Stornoway at 14:30 arriving Ullapool 17:15 and a 5 hour coach trip back.

Accommodation and costs is still to be sorted but once we have a better idea of numbers this will be communicated.  We also will arrange some fundraising (bag packing at ASDA for example) to keep the costs as low as we can.

If your child would be interested in attending the triangular match in Stornoway can you please return the slip to Junior Administrator or your coach by Tuesday 3^rd of July?

CSSL Match

The last match in the CSSL is on the 19^th August at Wishaw.  It is important that we have a good attendance to ensure we stay in division 2.

Can you please return the slip to the Junior Administrator or your coach if you are available for this match by Tuesday the 3^rd of July?

The Junior Coaching Team would like to thank all the children who took part in the league matches and are looking forward to the club championships in September. 

Club Championship Knightswood 10th February

Results
U11 Boys
R Ross - 5.21
A Quinn - 5.23
C Wallace - 5.31
M McColgan - 5.42
A Mcanerney - 5.51
U11 Girls
C Allan - 6.25
C Stuart - 6.26
S Hassan - 7.16
U13 Boys
L Hay - 11.28
B Aird - 11.30
S Kane - 13.44
U13 Girls
C Ross - 12.24
I Allan - 12.31
R Campbell - 14.31
A Abbott - 16.23
U15 Boys
D Campbell - 11.25
U15 Girls                
E Paxton - 12.12
U17 Men
T Dolan - 12.16
U17Women
C Reid - 13.12
D Nicholson - 14.56
U20 Women
K Kelly - 14.35
D Nicholson - 14.56                


       

Club Records

Some time ago I put up a post about club records and since then there has been another season gone by. Could we bring them up to date? First, I don't have veterans records for track and field: let's start to get them together. I know Bobby, Brian and Pete have set assorted records but could we have club best times for as many T&F events as possible? In the late 80's/early 90's several women who may well have been W35 or W40 competed - I can maybe look back but do we have women's times set in recent years on the track or in the field (any field) that we can use to start compiling these too?
The young athletes and their parents (who tend to be the ones with the scrap books!) may well have set records or may have run in an event on the track that is not on the list, could get in touch as well. The existing records as far as I know them are on the blog: got to the list on the right of the page and click on Records (there were 4 such postings so go down as far as things with (4) beside them to find them!)
Use my usual email address.

How about this one???

It has been brought to my attention by an old friend that there is now a three-year-old competing in cross country races. I know that during the running boom in the 80's there were American races where whole families including very young children ran marathons together ran marathon races. When lecturing to new endurance coaches, I used to put up on an Overhead Projector a list of times with numbers from 4 to 40 alongside and would ask what the figures were. No one ever said that they were American age group marathon records. When I heard about this three year old, I went to the www.arrs.net website and looked up the Single Age Records page (the link is about number five in the first column) to see how low the world records went.
For the marathon, the youngest boy listed is 5 years 358 days and he ran 5:25:09 and the youngest girl was aged 5 years 261 days and ran 4:56:26 - the 10 year old record for girls is 2:58:01 and the first boy to get under 3 hours was 9 years old and he did 2:56:57.
The notion of children running that far is kind of abhorrent to me - apart from their ages the miles they would have to do to be capable of sub three hours and the effect on their bodies with developing bones and joints must be considerable. It is also of interest that none of the young record holders seem to have made it to the adult ranks with any degree of success.
Knees and ankles are very vulnerable with young children and to subject them to even fairly high mileage when they are 10 years and under borders on inflicting bodily harm.
I know that a three year old running cross country where the surface is kinder to the joints and where the distance is about a mile can in no way be compared with training a ten year old to run a marathon, but nevertheless the fact that we are starting to see children in the lists at this early age is not a good sign.

Age Groups

Have we all been following the Unofficial SAL website correspondence and reading Doug Gillon in the 'Herald' about these? It seems that Scottish Athletics have decided that from next year the age groups for competition will be Under 20, Under 18, Under 16, Under 14 and the Under 12 athletes will compete in single year bands (ie U12, U11, U10). The AAA's of England don't seem too happy about it and they are sticking with U11. U13, U15, U17 and U20. The rest of the world works in even year age groups so we will be in line with the whole world except for England. For a start, it means that all age group records will have to be re-calculated by the statisticians and it may be that young athletes with say U17 records will lose their top of the rankings position to someone who is a bit older and Under 18.
One of the good points of the old system to me was that, because the Scottish Schools work in U12, U14, U16, U18 and the Scottish Athletics work in U13, etc, then a young athlete is always in the top year of his age group for one or the other!
Anywa, if you haven't looked at the correspondence, go to http://z3.invisionfree.com/unofficial_sal and see the Age Group Changes on the Athletics in Scotland Board. Note that the TOPS rankings have already changed to the new age groups.

Alva Highland Games

The Alva Highland Games ( always called 'the Famous Alva Highland Games')took place on Saturday and there were three of the younger club members in serious action there. Johnathan Farrell was off five and a half yards in the 90 metres and won Heat, Semi Final and Final which won a trophy and swelled his bank balance too. Peter Bowman was in action in three events: the 1600 where he was sixth, the 800 where he was fifth and the 400 where he was seventh. A very good day's training on a good grass surface and a couple of good races. Young Tony (photo above) had the best day with a first in the Youths 1600 and a third in the Youths 800. Apparently he was ahead of one of the other runners whom he had passed when he eased slightly just before the line - and lost the place he had just gained! The boys all came home richer than they left and they had had a great day out into the bargain! Well done guys, roll on the next one.

A picture from the Wee County News of Johnathan Farrell receiving the John and Maree Hendry Sash after winning the Open 90 metres at Alva Games.

Rachel

One of the really good young runners in the club recently has been Rachel Busby who has a lot of talent, but better still, is a really nice girl with a great sense of humour and well liked by everybody. Rachel went in to hospital on Wednesday with a kidney infection and came home today (Saturday). She has to take a two week course of anti-biotics, drink plenty and get lots of rest. She will just LOVE having to rest! A more active Harrier it would be hard to find!
Phil, the parents and the other young runners at the club all got together and sent her a card. Team mates Roisin McShea and Kirsty Alexander both visited her today with some nice presents. Do what you are told Rachel and get back to us all real soon!

Calderglen 3k Race

As well as the senior race at Calderglen (for which no results are yet available), there was Junior 3K race where our sole representative was Roisin McShea. She was third U13 Girl in the excelllent time of 12:41 and in the process finished nineteenth of the 87 finishers. Well done, Roisin.

Inter Regional Schools Championship, Grangemouth

In the Inter Regional Schools Championships at Grangemouth last week, Roisin McShea represented Dunbartonshire in the 1500 metres where she was up against older athletes. She did her usual good run and was well up with the others for most of the race finishing fifth in 5:17.

Roisin's Run

The popular Polaroid 10K series of races has always had other races before the main event on the day of the final race in the series. In this year's 5K race held at Lomond Shores our own Roisin McShea finished in 20:51 to be fourth overall and first female. The first female tag has been hers a couple of times already in the Glasgow Parkruns: here's to many more of them!

It has been a good couple of weeks for the younger generation of Harriers with Peter Bowman and Johnathan Farrell doing well in Scottish Schools and Age Group Championships and for the many who took part for their schools in the County Schools Championships: we don't have County Schools results yet by the way and any you have would be welcome.

Well done Roisin, excellent run!

Scottish Under 20's Championships

The only result that I have so far is Johnathan Farrell's third place in the Under 20 100 metres in 11.5. It was a wet and miserable morning in a deserted Grangemouth Stadium and he was drawn in lane 5 - a change from all the lane 8 and lane 1's that he'd been getting - in the Final. Side by side with the eventual winner for the first 60 metres or so he fell back slghtly and lost a place. With the winner timed at 11:3 and the fourth placed runner at 11.51 he was nearer first than fourth!

One of the topics of discussion on the day was why the Scottish Athletics U20 Championship had to be held on the same weekend as the Scottish Schools AA. The 17 years and over athletes had to choose between school and Scottish championships. Some tried to do both events - and their performances in most cases suffered.
It's not down to the schools - their champioships have been this weekend for as long as I've been in the sport - but the question is directed rather at the national governing body. All sides lost - the schools and the Scottish had diminished fields (eg Scottish Athletics U20 and Under 23 Women's 800 races were straight finals with only 4 runners and 5 runners respectively), the young athletes had to decide which meeting to support and whichever they chose they would lose out on a major championship. It is especially keenly felt by pupils in their last year at school who want to do a last schools competition where the atmosphere is a bit different.

Well done Peter - and Bobby and Pete!

In the Scottish Schools on Saturday Peter Bowman had a very good day when he broke two minutes for the 800 metres for the first time. Finishing third he was timed at 1:59.22 - a medal and a pb, who could ask for more? Tomorrow Sunday he is in the Scottish Athletics Under 20Championships and running in the 1500 metres - another pb would be good. Then on Tuesday he goes down to Manchester with Johnathan Farrell to run at the Trafford Track in another 800. I look forward to the result.

Earlier in the week Bobby Young and Pete Cartwright competed in the Corstorphine Five Miles Road race. Bobby was clocked at 32:22 and Pete was exactly 20 seconds behind in 32:42 for the hilly course.

Young Athletes League

The young athletes were out at the Scottish Young Athletes League match at Wishaw on Sunday and the team spirit was remarkable and there were several very good performances with victories on track and in the field events. Detailed results will be posted when we have them but there was no shortage of officials on the day either. Phil is doing a good job of organising the teams - that's three teams he is managing for the club right now - the Senior Men, the Central and South of Scotland League and the SYAL.

Phil will be getting some help on the coaching front soon from Donna Campbell for track and field, and Peter Halpin for track. Coaching young athletes is a difficult job - even schools are sometimes a bit confused at what they want! For instance it is usually easy to get results in the short term by simply drilling the children rather than coaching them. A local PE teacher who was heavily into athletics and a Grade Four coach used to get great results with his Under 12 teams in the Scottish Schools Cross Country championships but if you look at the programme even today his teams won less as they went up the age groups. A different local teacher in the 1980's said two things - he wanted the children to have a healthy lifestyle, enjoy athletics and keep it as a lifetime sport but he also said he wanted results NOW.

An American College coach went to ludicrous lengths to get victories for the College. He got a big squad together and then had them lap the track at 85 seconds a lap (their racing speed). When they were more than ten metres off the back of the pack, they came off the track until the next lap when they jumped back in. It was drilling in the race pace on five days out of seven. And his teams won lots of team prizes but none of the athletes had an individual career worth talking about. And of course there were injuries ................ overuse injuries ........lots of them!

But I'm away from the meeting on Sunday. It was good to see the boys and girls getting on so well together: when Andrew was hurtling towards the finish battling for first place, there were lots of team mates out shouting him on; when Roisin ran so well in the 1500 metres, it was great to see (and hear!) the support. And so it went on all afternoon.
Roll on Dumfries!!!

CSS League

The club's first venture into the Central and South of Scotland League was on Sunday at Grangemouth. The league brings together all age groups (U13, U15, U17, Senior and Veteran), both male and female in a selection of events. For instance there were 100 metres, 400 metres, 800 metres, 3000 metres and relays in all age groups. We managed to cover most events on the track and all athletes - from the opening 3000 metres for Seniors where Ian Robertson and David Brown were third in both A and B string events, right through to the relays where the Senior 4 x 100 metres relay won their race - did their very best. It was refreshing to see both boys and girls competing together in club vests for the first time in over 10 years: in the recent past the boys have been in their own vests and the girls were in West Dunbarton colours. It was disappointing that none of the club committee were able to come and see the young athletes perform: the committee is there to serve all the club and members would know better what is required of this age group were there to be a member who came along to see them compete and even speak to them. The next match in this league is at Dumfries and numbers going plus parents might well require a club bus. The next league match of any sort is next Sunday when there is a SYAL league match at Wishaw.

Good Luck

Since I'm off on holiday from Saturday morning I'd like to wish everybody and anybody competing on the road, on the track or up in the hills this weekend. The County Schools Cross Country Championships were held in the Goldenhill Park this morning and the only result that I have to hand is that Roisin McShea won her race comfortably enough. If any other results are available, I'd like to know! They tend not to be published in the AW. Several of the younger ones are going to the Nigel Barge 3000 metres fun run tomorrow before the Seniors do their bit. So get there a wee bit early Seniors and give the young ones a cheer on their way. We all like to be appreciated. It is good to see Maryhill Harriers putting this race on - it is similar to the efforts by Kirkie Olympians and Garscube Harriers to increase recruitment but doesn't take too many officials to do it. Our best, most recent opportunity to do some recruiting of course was at the Goldenhill Races where PE teachers are all there and it is possible to do some networking, do some recruiting and prepare for the future. It would be a pity if the chance was not grabbed with both hands. For the Seniors tomorrow the race counts towards the Dunbartonshire Cross Country League with the club needing six finishers at least - even if you are not in the first six, you could well be adding to the totals of other clubs. So get out there big style and all the very best.
Next Saturday is one I'll miss but one that I would like to see. It's the Six Stage relays for Men and four stage for women at Livingstone. With two men's teams entered and Mark Eudzinski, former Scottish U20 10000 metres road running champion (in 2000) in the second team it is the most promising outlook for some time. Go on chaps - give it stick (as South African Harrier John Bell Maclachlan used to say).

Another Busy Weekend

Last weekend was another very busy one for the Harriers. I was down to do a training session with Johnathan on Saturday morning and then went to see the Dunky Wright 5K road race. On a great day for the race, a change from some recent years,it was a good race to watch. Unfortunately there were only two club members running in our own race. It has become a habit to use our own officials and it should be possible to persuade members of other clubs to come along and assist to allow our own runners to turn out. I had a look up the arrs web site (www.arrs.net) when I came home to see what the top prize money on offer for 5K's was. If you haven't looked up this site and you are interested in road running it is well worth a visit with information on record times, largest fields, biggest earners (Haile Gebre with life time earnings so far of $3,530, 603) and so on. 24 of the 30 top highest earners of all time were Africans. The biggest pay out was a total of over $51,000 for the Rogaine 5K in 1991, the highest total payout for a 5K in 2009 was $42,500 in Downtown Rhode Island. So who's the club's top earner???? As for the two pics that are on the blog - I sincerely hope that you noticed me talking to Jim Wright and watching the runners come in?
On Sunday it was the Scottish Road Running Championships for all age groups from Under 11 to Under 20 and we had a few runners out. Another great day and they all continue to improve - Roisin setting an excellent example at the start of the day with a really fine run in the Girls race and a welcome return to racing for Caitlin. Claire ran well after missing a week when her school did not enter her for the Scottish Schools Championship and Peter is setting a good groundwork for the summer and is a well known face among the best in his age group. The Under 20's had two men running - Ryan Nelson and David Brown who had missed some time because of other commitments and it is good to see them back. But the numbers were small and maybe a wee recruitment drive is required for the summer season. Maybe an early club championship would get some of those missing over the winter out of the woodwork and back in harness.

National cross country championships

I missed the cross country championships at Falkirk today, as Rachel has been unwell with a sore throat and her asthma. If it was the same course as last year, then its a tough, hilly course, so well done to all the Clydesdale juniors who participated today.

Results
Under 13 Boys (3200 metres)
106th David Campbell 16 mins 43 secs

Under 13 Girls (3200 metres)
47th Roisin McShea 15 mins 44 secs

Under 15 boys (4000 metres)
83rd Tony Dolan 16 mins 41 secs
95th Lewis Wood 17 mins 29 secs

Under 15 girls (4000 metres)
63rd Claire Reid 18 mins 47 secs

Under 17 Men (6400 metres)
30th Peter Bowman 25 mins 34 secs

Under 20 Men (8000 metres)
38th Ryan Savage 34 mins 21 secs

Again well done to all the athletes who ran today and good luck at the indoor league match tomorrow.

The Club and Young Athletes

Immediately after the War, Clydesdale Harriers organised the first annual race for Under 17 athletes. It was praised as an excellent venture meeting a real need in Scottish athletes. It was a Ballot Team race - all the entrants names were entered in a draw and the first three athletes were team A, the second three team B and so on. Teams were therefore made up of athletes from different clubs and all, regardless of the strength of their individual clubs, had a chance of a team prize. (How would that go for seniors today???) The Johnny Morgan Trophy went to the individual winner and many who won it went on to excellent careers are senior athletes (Harry Fenion, Ian McCafferty, etc). Later the club proposed to the Annual General Meeting of the SAAA that there be annual championships for the Under 15 age group. It was carried and so the National U15 championships were born. We have also organised the Clydebank Highland Games for young athletes of both sexes. Derek McGinley had an annual 1500 metres race for local schools and we gained some first class athletes from that venture and in the days of John Tonner and Billy McLaughlin we had annual Clydebank Schools races with trophies donated by the Clydebank Council for the winning schools in the P6, P7, S1 and S2 age groups.

In recent years our record vis a vis events for young athletes has not been as goos. We organised the Clydebank Schools cross country championship and when we were asked by the County Sports Development Group to incorporate a County Schools event, we agreed. But then when the County people asked if it could be a DALAP veent we agreed. The result is that they organise it, staff it, lay the course, present the prizes and generally organise the show and Clydesdale is not involved. That brings the total of events organised by the club for young athletes to NONE. From National significance to nothing in about three generations. It's a sad record. The Committee seems to be at a distance from the younger generations. If all the Committee does is agree with what the coaches suggest, then I would suggest it is not doing its job. The Committee should be making suggestions, looking at the needs of the Juniors in the club and doing what it can to devise ways to support them. It would also be good to see a Committee member - any Committee member - coming to see the young athletes in their League matches during the summer - or even in Kelvin Hall at the end of January.

For next winter, why don't we offer to host the County relays or Championships, or even the District relays or Championships? Give the club members a home run for a change. If we have held International and National Championships in Clydebank in the past, why not now? The question for the Committee is not 'Can we do it?' but rather 'HOW can we do it?' Look for the answer to the question of how we host the races not ask if we can do it.

A Word about the Young Athletes.

Since we were unceremoniously turfed off our training track at Dean Street, Whitecrook in the early 1990's we have had problems retaining good young athletes. The problem was disguised to some extent by the fact that there were seven or eight good coaches who had their own athletes and recruited to their own squads. Scott Govan (HJ and Hurdles), David Gibson (Pole Vault), Bill Hislop (Sprints), Bobby Bell (Throws), Brian McAusland (Endurance) plus Hugh McArthur from Lochgilphead all worked superbly well for the club. We had teams in the Men's League (often in Division One of the five eight team divisions), the women's league (all ages from Under 13 to veteran) and the Young Athletes League. BUT the athletes came largely from Bearsden, Milngavie, Balfron, Killearn with about a fifth coming from Clydebank. The lack of a local training venue was disguised. Although we were seventh club of the 400+ in Scotland and VPAAC was fifteenth, we had a problem building up. It became clearer after Bobby Bell moved house, Scott Govan stopped coaching, David Gibson was promoted and Bill Hislop had health problems.
We still managed with guys like Alex Fisher (Boclair Academy), Richie Blair (Thomas Aquinas), Derrick Speirs (Cleveden) and Angus McInroy (Lomond School) and there was a good number of Clydebank athletes but as the demands for more training were imposed and the cost of all the additional travel to Kelvin Hall or Scotstoun was added up we lost more and more athletes. Retention became a real problem. We needed a local facility and we needed a range of coaches covering most events.

While we can do little about the facilities problem other than keep hassling the Council about the track at St Peter's, we can get the structure right. On the structure front the key figures are Donald McLeod for track and field and Phil Dolan for endurance running. Donald has experience, he is very good with the older athletes and is the top man. If he can give Donna Campbell more responsibility and get even one day a fortnight from her while she is sorting her career as a teacher out, she can be a real asset next summer as a long jump coach and in time as a recruiting agent. If Paul Doherty can be kept involved at any level through the winter as a hj coach he can be useful as an athlete as well as a coach next year.

There is word that Jolene Ennis might be available to help Phil - women are more necessary in endurance events than in any other because for psychological reasons as well as for physiological reasons. Jolene is also a level 2 coach, a former Scottish Schools and Scottish age group internationalist and club champion who has had experience of US College athletics. We also have many very promising young athletes. On the coaching front - if Phil and Donald can figure out ways of getting the younger coaches involved - things are bright.

At Committee level we really must, must, must get the Clubmark award sorted out. OK it might just be a bit of paper BUT - Victoria Park has it, Garscube Harriers has it, West Dunbarton has it and we don't despite us having the relevant papers passed to our Committee before any of these clubs. Scottish Athletics will, when asked to recommend a club, recommend clubs with the clubmark. Schools will know about the clubmark and while other clubs can say that they have it, Phil and Donald can't. Where do the schools send their athletes? The Committee needs to get a grip on this. It's not good enough to say that it will take as long as it takes.
For the young athletes I am optimistic. About recruitment we need a local facility and on a lower level we need the clubmark.