Central athletes on Scottish medal trail
Impressive tally at age group championships
Teenage athletes Matt Chandler and Emma Mailer have been on the medal trail north and south of the border.
Cambusbarron girl Emma followed up her silver in the 400 metres hurdles in the Under 20 Scottish Championships by taking on her own age group in the Under 17 300m hurdles.
This time she was a clear winner, running away from the field to win in 45.23 seconds, nearly two seconds clear of her nearest rival. She then returned the next day in the flat 300m and produced a strong run to add her second medal of the weekend with a personal best 40.72, narrowly missing the club record in winning a silver.
Matt, from Balfron, was also looking for a medal double at pole vault and high jump. In the former he found himself up against a strong challenge from Scott Brindlay of North Ayrshire but a clearance at 4.00 metres won him gold.
In the high jump he faced long jump winner Joel MacFarlane (Arbroath) and Stephen MacKenzie (Inverness) who won the triple jump. The trio had some high jump specialists in the field and as the bar went to 1.89m Matt was in the joint lead with Joel and Stephen with only one other athlete left in.
Unfortunately he was unable to go higher but with only Joel clearing 1.89m Matt finished in joint second for silver.
The duo then headed to Loughborough University for the School Games - with Emma landing a bronze in the 300m hurdles and Matt taking gold in the pole vault.
Back at the Under 17 Scottish Championships, Rosie Eckersley finished a fine third in the 1500m steeplechase. She led the field round the first lap before Scottish record holder Sarah Tait of Lasswade took control.
Rosie, however, ran strongly for bronze with a time of 5.37.45, her first Scottish medal on the track having had previous success at cross country and winning the Scottish trail running title last year.
There were many other great performances from Central athletes at Grangemouth.
James Isgrove triple jumped to a personal best 12.71m, which would usually be good enough for a medal but with the top three leaping well over 13 metres, including a championship record 14.24m from Stephen MacKenzie of Inverness, James had to settle for fourth.
Anna Cameron was fifth in the long jump after jumping 5.11m and went on to reach the 200m final after running 27.09 in her semi-final before placing seventh in the final. She also just missed out on the 100m final, an impressive 13.02s in the semi just out of the fastest loser spots.
Rachel Methven was seventh in the shot putt with a season’s best 9.89m and in the same spot at discus with a throw of 26.04m.
Keir Howlieson set a personal best in the 1500m of 4.12.97 but this was only good enough for 11th in a fast race.
In the 100m Neil Casserley and John Wilkie were both just outside their personal bests with Neil sprinting to 12.17s and John 12.48s.
These results brought Central AC’s tally to 22 medals over all the age groups at the Scottish Championships over two weekends of action. Along with further medals earlier in the season at relays, combined events and long distance events this makes an impressive tally for the club’s athletes.