Report from Dudley Walker . All photos courtesy of Bobby Gavin

The rarely used Scotstoun Stadium held the second of two athletics events in a week on Friday 1st of June….following the Sprints Night on Wednesday it was the turn of the endurance athletes to stretch their legs and chase fast times!
The Middle Distance and Endurance athletes made the most of the warm weather,the superbly organised event and the wonderful spread of home baking to capture an enormous amount of PBs.
First up was Hannah Ryding making her debut over 3000m.She enjoyed the experience so well that she ran the second fastest time over that distance in Scotland this year in the under 15 age group…and 10th on the UK rankings.Ethan Carolan powered his way to a 9:18.16 personal best.
Also gaining PBs over the distance were Eva Chong,Lara Cassidy and Kieran Killen.
The 800s were well paced and pulled many of our athletes through to much improved times.The under 15 girls squad were all in fine form with all of them achieving either a SB or a PB.Abby Thomson,Zoe Flower,Ella McGregor,Kate Paul,Valencia Wright,Isla Scott all produced improved times with Nuala O’Donnell not far away with a season’s best.Most improved was Valencia on her GN debut with a 7 second PB…down to 2:18.99,
Not to be outdone the under 15 boys in the shape of Jacob,Harris,Reuben and Kian all came up trumps with quick times.Jacob getting ever closer to sub 2 with a time of 2:01.73.most improved was Kian McConville who reduced his 800m best by almost 10 seconds to 2:21.91.Eoghan O’Donnell improved to 2:8.44 with Lewis Mitchell getting close to a PB with a time of 2:11.55
Erin Wallace had her first outing this season over 800m and recorded 2:8.63 which takes her to 5th in the UK under 20 rankings.

Thanks to Dudley for the report

Well done to all the Middle Distance athletes and their coaches!More photos, videos and reports on GAA facebook and twitter feed.
This was the 1st GAA Outdoor Miler Meet of the season.
Entries have just opened for the 2nd one on 27th July.

Full Squad Of Giffnock U12s

Relay Team smiles from Leilani Spelman Ikedashi, Hannah Turnbull, Kirsty Adam & Emilia Hickey Fugaccia

And another smiling Team with Erin Mckay, Lucy Cree, Emily Williams & Cara Weir

A fantastic squad of our young athletes attended this Invitational Quad event hosted by Inverclyde AC at the Ravenscraig Stadium on Sunday the 3rd June. It was an excellent event from start to finish . As the main organiser Janice Hendrie noted ” it was Grassroots Athletics at its best”
Giffnock had a large contingent with 3 Boys Teams. 5 Girls Teams and a brilliant Team of 8 Year olds drawn form our Saturday RJT Session.
The sun was shining, the athletes shone and the Parents , Volunteers and Coaches were delighted with the efforts, performances and attitude of all our athletes. Outstanding! the teams sprinted over 75 m, did Long Jump and Turbo Javelin and then a 4x100m relay . Our team of 8 years olds did the same except for a 60m Sprint. It was a delight to watch , to participate in with all the Club Volunteers working together to make it a great event to be part of. Our very grateful thanks go to Janice Hendrie, Gerry and Jan Gaffney , Inverclyde AC volunteers and coaches and Janice’s troop of Young Leaders who were exceptional too. Thank you for a great day from all at Giffnock North. We are promising to look at hosting the next one.
Our Boys A Team drew with Kilbarchan for 1st Place
Our Girls A team was also first but just look at the Full results below to see the strength and depth over the day’s performances.

Download (XLSX, 29KB)

Max McHarg on the Podium

Nicole Proudfoot

The Murray to Max Exchange

Scottish Schools CE Report
by Craig Fotheringham

The Scottish Schools Combined Events Championships took place at Grangemouth on Saturday 2nd June 2018 with Max McHarg and Murray Fotheringham (both aged 14) ,our only first claim participants. Max and Murray were both Gold medallists last year at these Championships in the Under 14 (group D) and Under 15 (Group C) age categories but both were stepping up an age group this year – Max to Under 15 (Group C) where he remained one of the favourites and Murray to Under 17 (Group B) where he would have to do battle with some considerably older boys! Despite the forecast for cloud followed by heavy showers , the sun was splitting the sky at Grangemouth and the athletes had to seek shade whenever they were not competing.
Max started well with 2nd place in the Hurdles in a new PB of 12.33 seconds. His Long Jump is his weakest event and, slightly down on His PB , a leap of 4.80 Metres left him well behind the leaders down in 5th place overall. However, he then threw in 2 personal bests in the 200 Metres (23.71 seconds ) and 11.30 Metres in Shot Putt to win both events and jump into the overall lead. He tracked his closest rival in the final event before outsprinting him in the home straight for another event win in 2:15.16 and yet another PB. His overall score of 2820 gave him the Gold by a significant margin and the “Murray Cup” returned to Clarkston for another year after a brief 9 hour “holiday” in Grangemouth .
Murray meanwhile had started well with PB’s in both Shot Putt (9.64 Metres) and 100M Hurdles (15.51seconds), but still trailed significantly down in 9th place. His good events, however, were still to come and a huge 6 .82 Metres legal PB for second place in the Long Jump pushed him up to 4th place. A third place in the 200 metres with yet another PB in a time of 23.97 pushed him closer to the podium in terms of points but still 4th Overall. A blistering solo run in the 1500 meters saw him win the final event by over 20 seconds in a time of 4:30.27 which pushed him into Bronze medal position with a Giffnock Record Score of 3312 points.
Second Claim member Nicole Proudfoot was delighted to triumph in the Under 17 (Group B) Girls after a long injury lay off . She scored very consistently throughout the day and received great support from her coach John Birkett.
Also staged on Saturday, in an attempt to ease the congested program for next Friday and Saturday, were the Scottish Schools Hammer and Steeplechase events. Full Final results/times are not yet posted but 3 Giffnock girls attempted the steeplechase – a tortuous event! Jill Carswell and Helen Chong trailed behind Emma Chamberlain until the last lap where Emma’s valiant attempt faded with 400 to go and Helen and Gill both passed her with Helen winning the Bronze medal and an outside chance of a Scottish cap at SIAB next month.
History has a habit of repeating itself and in the Schools ”4 by 100” metre relays at Hutchie the day before , Max anchored his Hutchie Under 15 team to Gold whilst Murray ran last for his Glasgow Academy Over 17 Team bring them home in third place and a Bronze. In the 4 by 400 relay, Annabel Ballantyne and Eve Denholm running for Glasgow Academy brought home another Bronze. The next day at Grangemouth, in the midst of the Combined events competition, the Primary Schools relays took place. As this report is finalised I have not seen final results for either the Senior or Primary School relays but many Giffnock North athletes competed and may well have won medals or made the finals. I am aware Mearns Primary just missed the podium with a 4th place represented by Emily Watson, Eilidh Veitch, Tara Menon and Eilidh Hunter. Trying to keep track of Giffnock athletes when they are not wearing the Blue and Gold is almost impossible, so I am unable to provide a full commentary on the relays. Well done to all who competed and apologies for any omissions.

Grateful thanks to Craig for this report and photographs!! Welcome Development in Combined Events at the Club

Giffnock North AC Festival Of Running Programme –

Thursday 7th June 2018

All events still available, see details below:

PRIMARY SCHOOL FUN RUNS at 6.00pm and 6.15pm   
TURN UP & RUN

SECONDARY SCHOOLRACES at 6.30pm & 6.45pm
Registration 5.15pm
Enter online only at  https://www.entrycentral.com/TTPAB

Rouken Glen 10k at 7.30pm

Enter at https://www.entrycentral.com/Rouken-Glen-10k

Jenna Wrisberg

Rachel Callan in the Hurdles relay

Reuben Nairne

Photos Courtesy of Bobby Gavin

GAA Sprint Gala

REPORT by Craig Fotheringham

There was a big turnout at the Glasgow Athletic Association Sprint Gala held at Scotstoun Stadium last night with roughly 2 dozen runners from Giffnock North. It was a nice evening for running but although the wind indicator believed there to be a generally insignificant headwind it was blustery enough to make PB’s a rarity.
Pride of place must go to Jenna Wrisberg who ran her first 100 Metres since a long injury layoff and won the elite Women’s race in 12.04 – fast enough to win a share of the prize pot! Whist Jenna was cashing in at the front, behind her the unfortunate Alyson Bell crashed to the ground 20 meters from the line and left a fair amount of skin on the track. She was smiling afterwards but our best wishes go out to her and we hope the damage is only superficial.
In the elite men’s race, Adam Clayton was 2nd in 11.05 and repeated the feat in the second round of 100’s later in the evening but in 11.07 this time.
In addition to Jenna’s victory there were heat wins for Jason Wu in 11.74 and Jake Vulcan in 13.21. Most could not improve in the second round of 100’s but Jason improved to 11.67 and Andy Moses from 11.84 to 11.72. Russell Lawson also shaved off another 0.05 seconds to win his second round heat in a PB of 11.81. Others to improve in the second round were Rachel Callan (13.75) and Jake Vulkan with a PB of 13.09. Runners to join the PB Club were Murray Fotheringham (12.04), Jacob Luc (12.51) and Emily Williams (15.69).
In between the two rounds of 100 Metres were the 300’s. There were PB’s for Matthew Forbes (37.44), Murray Fotheringham (37.72) and Ella McGregor (45.80) together with a Seasons Best for Freya Menzies of 41.82. Murray’s time also appears to be an Under 17 Club Record.
Whilst the track was in full swing, there were Long and High Jump competitions to keep the crowd occupied. As this report went to press, the results were noy yet finalises but there was some solid jumping from Lauren Agnew and a new PB for Reuben Nairne 6.41M.
The evening finale was a rarely seen end-to-end hurdle relay with Reuben and Murray teaming up with some good pals from the North to scoop the £100 prize.
A great evening was had by all and the cakes were magnificent. Many thanks to the organisers and the officials for making it all run so smoothly and well done to all that participated.

And many thanks to Craig for the full report . Link to Results below . More photos and reports on GAA facebook and Twitter

http://events.scottishathletics.org.uk/events/20322-17680-gaa-sprint-gala-1

Congratulations to Lynn McKenna and Rhona Mowat on their selection for Scotland for Hillrunning at the International Youth Cup in Italy next month . It was as a result of last weekends Ben Lomond races and Report on the exploits of all the Hill runners follows.

Report from Frank McKenna
Some excellent performances from young Giffnock athletes on a gloriously sunny day and a very demanding up and downhill course at the Ben Lomond junior hill races on Saturday 12th May.

First up was Calan Chong in the junior fun run. Unfortunately, there were no other entrants in this race, so Allie offered to accompany him round the course. Young Calan showed his mum a clean pair of heels and completed the 1.7 k course with 80 m climb in a very impressive time of 9 mins and 22 secs.

Next up was Eva Chong in the U15 girls race. Eva ran strongly in the 2.6 k course with 160 m of climb in 16 mins and 49 secs.

Finally, the combined U17 and U20 races with Lynn McKenna and Rhona Mowatt in the U20 category, Helen Chong in the U17 girls category and Christopher Watson -Sweeney in the U17 boys category. This was the qualification race for places in the Scottish age 16-17 team for the forthcoming WMRA Youth Cup to be held in Lanzada, Italy on the 16th of June.

This proved to be a very competitive race with the Giffnock athletes featuring prominently in the final placings. Lynn McKenna came second overall in the combined U20/17 race and secured the single automatic selection place for the Youth cup team, Rhona Mowat finished a strong third, Helen Chong, unfortunately lost a shoe during the race but still managed to come second in the U17 race just over a minute behind the winner. Christopher Watson – Sweeney also competed well in the U17 boys race against several older and experienced international runners.

Thanks to Frank McKenna for the photos and this Report on our Expanding Junior Hill running Team

Adam Clayton

Alessandro Schenini

Rachel Alexander

Congratulations to 3 of our athletes who have been included in teams for the Loughborough International this weekend.

Rachel Alexander (long jump) and Adam Clayton (200m) have been included in the Scotland team and Alessandro Schenini (long jump) has been given his first GB junior vest as part of the GB Juniors team.

This is the 60th Loughborough International and is contested between teams from Scotland, England, Wales, British Universities and GB Juniors. There are several guest athletes and there a number of established senior athletes competing such as Richard Kilty, Daryl Neita, Mark Dry, Allan Smith, Grant Plenderleith and Jemma Reekie to name a few.

For more info see loughboroughsport.com

Good luck to all three on Sunday .

Angelica Mayer, 100m U13 gold
Kosta del Kilmarnock – AKA West Districts Championships 12/13th May REPORT FROM Gerry Duggan & Sara Lang
Day1
Who would have thought the sun would have shone and it would have been dry?!
There were picnic rugs, deck chairs , sunburnt faces and 22 medals on display by the end of the day on Saturday.
13 gold medals, 6 silver and 3 bronze; each and every one fought for with determination and pride .
Its difficult to highlight any one performance or even all of them but suffice to say we had medals at every single age group and at almost every type of event. There were U13s who even got 2 medals ( Daniel Martin) . There were a plethora of Giffnock athletes competing against one another at times ..in particular the U20 M 100m final and 2 sets of High Jump were a Giffnock 1 and 2 ( U17 and Sen M).
Gold medals were won by;
Reuben Nairne 100m Hurdles
Daniel Martin 75m Hurdles and Shot Put
Nikolai Gajic 800m
Adam Clayton 100m
Jacob Luc 800m
Angelica Mayer 100m
Alyson Bell 100m
Nikki Manson Javelin
Alessandro Schenini Long Jump
Chris Mackay High Jump
Murray Fotheringham High Jump
Rachel Alexander Long Jump
Silver medals;
Orla Lang 800m
Catherine Palmer High Jump
Ryan Davie Long Jump
Ethan Dear High Jump
Sam Young High Jump
Rachel Callan Long Jump
Bronze Medals;
Kyle Maclean 100m
Matt Forbes 400m
Jennifer Dallas Shot Put
Day 2 – Who knew it could be sunny in Kilmarnock two days running?
The day started with hurdles. In the combined U17/u20/Senior Men combined final. Murray Fotheringham was the only u17 with a new pb of 59.98. Next was Freya Menzies winning the combined U20/Senior Woman final in 65.87, her first competition at this distance. And just to keep the hurdles medals rolling in, Rachel Callan just missed out on Gold by .04s in the U17 Womans 300mH, coming second with a time of 47.14, her second medal of the champs
The 200m was a busy event for Giffnock across all the age groups.
5 U13 girls competed – Angelica Mayer, Josie Reilly, Eilidh Veitch, Cartriona Bentley and Leah Rigley. Angelica, Josie, Catriona and Eilidh progressed to the semi finals. In the final Angelica was second (28.33) – an addition to her gold from the 100m yesterday – and Josie 7th (29.98) into a headwind off 9.2m/s! Brilliant performance all round. Ellis Nairne was the only U13 Boy and just missed the final finishing 9th fastest in the heats with 30.71s.
In the U15s Alyson Bell, Jenifer Torrance, Ella McGregor, Chloe Drummond and Rachel Morran all competed in girls event. Alyson made the final and tore up the track to win in 26.71. A double sprint gold. In the boys event, Jacob Luc and Michael Nolan competed. Unfortunately Michael was disqualified for running out of lane – windy day? – but Jacob won bronze in the final with 25.20s. A second medal for Jacob.
With no boys in the U17 200m, all focus was on the girls. Eve Denholm and Rachel Callan cruised through the heats before Eve secured gold in the final (26.84) and Rachel 7th (27.44). This was Rachel’s third final of the champs and the only one in which she didn’t medal. Well done both.
In the U20’s 200m Womans Final Holly Shearer secured Bronze (27.80) and in an exact repeat of the 100m result Adam Clayton won gold (22.32) and Kyle McLean Bronze (23.28).
Brilliant effort for all 200m competitors in such blustery conditions
The other track event on Day 2 was the 1500m. All age groups were run as straight finals. Kirsty Wylie was our only U13 girl finishing in a time of 5.45.80 and in the U13 Boys, Calan Chong (5.15.99) and James Wylie (5.54.36). Well done to our U13s. Our U15 girls made their mark through Zoe Flower securing a bronze (4.52.00) and Abbey Thomas (5.05.23) and Hannah Riding (5.08.81) not far behind in in 5th and 7th. The u17 Girls were next up. Jill Carswell (5.03.71) just missed out on bronze in 4th, with Francesca Davidson 5th and (5.04.54) and Helen Chong 8th (5.18.53). Nikolai Gajic just missed 800/1500m double gold coming 2nd in the u20 1500m in a tight battle all the way down the home straight (4.09.72). A close battle was expected in the U15 boys 1500m. Harris Paterson and Ross O’Brien were in a group of three that broke early from the pack. A great race saw Harris (4.24.74) winning silver and Ross (4.26.26) bronze. Reuben MacDonald, Hugh Shiels and Aaron McGilvery battled through to 6th, 9th and 10th places.
Giffnock had a great day in the field.
First to the throws. In the hammer U15 Imogen Maher (23.71m) just finished out of the medals with a consistent series of throws. Going one better, U17 Iris Williams was delighted to secure her first championship medal with a bronze, throwing 26.34m.
Our Javelin throwers didn’t want to miss the medal party and won a double gold. u13 Emily Watson won with 21.09m and U15 Jennifer Dallas won with 26.66m, her second medal of the champs. U13 Tara Menon also threw well with 9.57m. Jennifer rounded off her day with a 4rth place in the discuss with 20.73m.
In the jumps U17 Murray Fotheringham leapt his way to silver (6.86m) – his third medal of the champs – and Sam Young was 4rth (5.79) in the Long Jump. U13 Ellis Nairne was 1 place off a medal in the High Jump (1.26m).
So in total Giffnock North won 19 Golds, 11 silvers and 9 Bronze. Will done to all our medal winners and competitors.

Please please forgive us if there are errors or omissions in this report. It is produced by those who were officiating, coaching and/or parenting ( and sometimes all three!) and it’s so difficult to capture it all. Well done to all of you..not just the medal winners . There were many many pbs and lots of athletes who made finals all credit to them and their coaches.

Many thanks to Gerry and Sara for this report. We would echo their congratulations and also their request for budding journalists at out next club events & competitions!

Following some considerable difficulties and negotiations we have arranged the Club Champs for Sunday 23rd September . They will take place again at the Ayrshire Arena in Kilmarnock. Unfortunately, we were not able to secure our preferred date in Mid September due to the unavailability of Graded Officials who had conflicting duties at a range of other events locally and south of the border. We had also considered an earlier date but substantial clashes with other League matches and events ruled those options out. We realise that the weekend of 22/23rd is the September weekend but the only other options were to go to a later date when the the weather is even less likely to be favourable. Given the winter and spring we have endured we are in need of a chrystal ball regarding the weather. However , on the plus side Doleen Galbraith and Anne Stewart have been working hard to secure the club sufficient graded officials for our event to be licensed and consequently for results to be included in Power of Ten.
A sure fire way of avoiding the date difficulties in future would be if we can grow our own Officials to add to the solid and strong band we have already in Doleen Galbraith, Anne Stewart, Garry Paterson,Colin Saxby, Catriona Gourley, Carole Ford
If you think you could assist the club in this way please let us know
We need Technical Officials for Photo Finish etc as well as Track& Field Officials.
We would be really grateful if you could consider this and contact us . Who knows you could be at the next televised event. Please contact us if you could consider becoming an official. Its not a huge ask .There are courses taking place all the time.

We would like to express apologies to all our club members regarding the current situation in relation to club kit.

We realise, this is a massive inconvenience but for the time being, due to circumstances, outwith our control, we are limited in relation to our kit sales. Consequently, for a limited period, we will be ordering only essential items of kit – vests and hoodies.

This is a problem for the Club and not related at all to Migo Sports. If you have any queries it is crucial that you raise these with the club and not with Migo Sports. The problem is not an issue for Migo Sports who have continued to be really helpful to the Club.

As soon as we can arrange it, normal service will be resumed at Migo Sports. We can’t wait and neither can Michael at Migo Sports. In the interim you can purchase club vests and hoodies from Migo Sports.

If you have any additional queries, please raise with Lynda Scott at email address anthony.scott6@ntlworld.com or by mobile at 07756 927460.

Thanks Lynda