Giffnock North held yet another successful club championships at Kilmarnock on Sunday 14^th September, bringing the Summer Season to a close. We had 250 athletes entered in the muti-disciplinary competition where each athlete had to participate in a throw, jump, sprint and endurance event. Points were awarded pentathlon/decathlon style for each event and the winner, per age group, is the athlete with the highest accumulated points.

Our athletes rolled up their new club championship t-shirt sleeves (thanks to Billy and Heather Stewart for their generous support of this) and got stuck into Javelin or Shot Putt, Long Jump or High Jump, 800m or 1500m and one of 100m/200m/300m/hurdles.

The camaraderie and enthusiasm amongst the athletes was brilliant. The cheering and support for each other could be heard throughout the day. Special mention goes to the Long Jump pits who generated more clapping, cheering and good-natured booing than a pantomime at Christmas. We hope that you all had fun and know that some stellar performances produced a PB or two.

The only grey cloud on the horizon, literally and metaphorically, was the weather. Forecasts told us to expect an afternoon downpour. All those crossed fingers did hold it off a little longer than expected, but when it came, what a deluge. Our athletes attempted to battle through the torrential rain, but eventually the Track Referee had to make the difficult decision to stop all track events and the 200m races were cancelled. As U13 Long Jump and Senior Javelin had already started, those events were allowed to complete. Well done to the hardy athletes in those events.

We are currently reviewing how we can re-stage the cancelled 200m on another day and complete the the club champs. Look out for further updates on this.

Did you spot the three-time Olympian and four-time World Champs medallist amongst our helpers? Lee McConnell, who competed at the 2004, 2008 and 20012 Olympics and won 4 World Champs relay bronze medals was part of the team looking after the U11 boys. It is fantastic when athletes who have competed at the highest level are willing to help at the grass roots. Colin Mearns had covered Lee’s career as a Herald photographer and was delighted to have a reunion with her.

An event on this scale cannot go ahead without a huge amount of planning and work. First and foremost, in the role of honour are Amparo Ruiz and Heather Stewart who planned and organised the whole event. Without them the Club Champs would simply not happen – recruiting officials and volunteers, creating timetables, the list is endless. Alongside them was the ever present Clare Stevenson.

On the athletics side we are so very grateful to the following groups of people, who are too numerous to call out individually

• Officials from both our own and other clubs for giving their time and expertise that allows this event to take place and the results to be registered on Power of 10.
• In support of the licensed officials were many of our own coaches and parent helpers who acted as volunteer officials and athlete guides, allowing the day to run so smoothly.
• The Call Room team who made sure our athletes were ready to compete
• All the volunteers who set up and de-rigged the tents and support infrastructure.
• All the staff at Ayrshire Athletics Arena

Alongside the athletic event, we had a brilliant support infrastructure provided by the following people:

• Michael and all the staff at Migo Sports for the rapid production of the customised Club Champs T-shirts, so generously funded by Billy and Heather Stewart.
• Abi and Louise on the Raffle and Tombola – (some happy faces could be seen carrying their wins)
• Karen and Barbara on a splendid and popular preloved stall of spikes and training kit. Thanks to everyone who handed in donations to make this happen. Bargains were bagged.
• Sharon, Caroline and Lindsey, the catering crew. Food was labelled, wrapped, bagged and served with smiles and such TLC. Alan (Sharon’s husband) was a great help in kitchen.
• Everyone who made baking donations! There was so much to choose from.
• Nihal Lindsay’s Nani Jee who arrived hot off the train from Stoke and straight into the kitchen to help chop, peel and fry pakoras, make dhal and chapattis for the officials / to sell. Mmmmm.
• Kulis for all catering work and contributing to this report
• Lee, Sabrina and Tracey who looked after the U11 boys
• Laura -Anne and Zoe who looked after the  U11 girls.
• The two Pauls did the honours with looking after the U13 boys
• Julia and Alix were in charge of the U13 girls.
• Also the Results Team Rowan and Euan for their speedy results service. Everythihng was up to date when the weather hit.
• Graham Dunn for all his work and expertise on devising the point scoring and warking out the winners.
• And Lesley Campbell / Laura Tyler and Ellis Yuill on Declarations
• To all the parents, friends and family who set their alarms early to bring their kids, and support their loved ones on the day. Every athlete is grateful for their support team. 

We hope that you have enjoyed the photos in this report. We were fortunate to have three professionals on hand to record the day – Colin Mearns, from the Herald, Alan Cameron and Alan Stewart. Colin’s stunning photos are already online and can be seen at this link. As soon as we get hold of Allan and Alan’s photos we will add them to this same link. So keep checking back

If we have missed any group or individual form this list of thanks, please accept our sincere apologies. It was a very busy day and hard to keep track of everything. Let us know if we missed you or you know of someone who was missed and we will get this report updated.

You will see that running the Club Championships and Giffnock North as a whole is a huge undertaking and requires the help and support of volunteers. If the Club Champs have inspired you to get involved – whether you want to help with coaching, officiating, admin, social media, marketing, etc, etc, etc – please get in touch via admin@giffnocknorth.co.uk.

Look out for updates regarding the cancelled 200m and conclusion of club champs.

We hope to see you all at an athletics event soon.