SSAA T & F Champs

SSAA Track & Field Champs
Grangemouth
12/13 June 09

Several local athletes competed at the Scottish Schools. There were some gold medals on show, although there could have been more but for the absences of David Vernon and Kyle McLellan (Nithsdale AC), who were gallavanting in France on a school trip as were Richard Stonehouse, Justin Little, Alex Craig and Stephanie Lawrie (all Nithsdale AC).

Friday
Wins came from Kirsty Yates (Stewarty AC) and Hope Robertson (Edinburgh AC) on the 1st day of competition.

Kirsty was once again victorious in the Group B shot. She was well done on her personal best with 11.67 but this was enough to give her a comfortable lead over Rachel Hunter (Ayr Seaforth) in 2nd with 10.85.

In the 80m Hurdles, Kirsty was 2nd in her heat with 12.39, narrowly outside her PB of 12.35. Both these times were ran into a strong headwind. In the final, Kirsty struggled with the -2.9 headwind and finished down in 5th with 12.57.

Hope competed in the Group A 100m on Friday. She eased through her heat with 12.78 into a -1.7 headwind. Conditions had changed in the final where the sprinter were aided by a +0.7 wind. Hope won in 12.46 but might have been disappointed not to be closer to her PB of 12.28, set last year. Nonetheless it was a SB for the 17 year old Lockerbie Academy pupil.

The only other medal of the day came from the much improved Joanna Muir (Stewarty AC) in the Group B 1500m. Having eased through her heat in 4:58.39, Joanna priduced a 4 second PB in the final whilst finishing an excellent 3rd against older opponents. She finished behind Sarah Kelly and Hollie Young with 4:43.58.

Most of the other performances came from the 800m. In the Group D 800m, Laura Penrice (Shettleston Harriers) successfully made it through to the final after finishing 3rd in her heat in 2:32.32 but couldn't finish in a fast final, won with a Scottish Under 13 Record from Kathryn Gillespie (Central AC).

Also in the Group D 800m was Jacqueline Pringle (Stewartry AC) who finished 4th in Laura's heat with a new PB of 2:35.43.

Someone else in Pb form was Danielle Beattie (Nithsdale AC), who competed in the Group C 800m. She was 3rd in her heat with a 3 second PB of 2:27.61 but unfortunately was just outside the 2 fastest losers spots for the final.

The other athlete competing was Jess Liddon (Nithsdale AC). Jess recorded a big PB of 46.65 in the heats of the 300m Group B competition but unfortunately, she didn't make it to the final.

Saturday
There were 2 more golds on Saturday for Hope Robertson and Kirsten Gair (Stewartry AC), the latter also winning silver.

Kirsten won gold in the Group D Discus and silver in the Group D Javelin. Competing with the lighter Under 13 weights, she posted new PBs in both events with 24.28 in the Discus and 22.11 in the Javelin.

Hope continued her sprint double with an emphatic victory in the Group A 200m. Her winning time of 25.34 would have been a narrow electronic PB but for the +2.3 wind. She won by half a second from Lasswade's Lesley Campbell.

Fiona Paterson (Stewarty AC) competed in her new event, the 300m Hurdles. She was 2nd in her heat with 49.24 before taking a second off her PB in the final when finishing 4th. Her time of 47.71 was a narrow 0.2 seconds off a medal.

Another improving athlete is Katy Brown (Stewarty AC) who missed most of last year through injury. The St Joseph's College pupil made the final of Group B 800m with 2:24.62 in the heats before improving her PB in the final to 2:19.08, finishing 5th.

Carly McCrindle (Nithsdale AC) didn't have the best of days by her own standards. In the HJ she could only manage 1.40m, which put her in 9th= position. If she had equalled her PB of 1.50 she could've been as high as 5th position. In the 300m Hurdles, she finished 5th with 53.57, down on her PB, although she will have been tired out by the Pentathlon Championships the week before.

Chris Ponton (Nithsdale AC) finished 10th in a highly competitive Group C 1500m final. He couldn't keep up with the leaders but ran a good race to finish in 4:45.94.

Callum Johnstone (Nithsdale AC) had a mixed day. He threw a PB in the Group D Javelin to finish 5th in 22.48 but had a disappointing Discus where he finished 7th with 16.06, down on his PB, which is over 20m.