Elizabeth the first
Elizabeth Thompson was on stunning form as she claimed the 400m title with a superb run at the Scottish under-20 indoor championships.
The 16 year-old from Balfron has been a Central AC member for six years, serving the club with distinction with numerous appearances at league matches and has won several sprint relay gold medals, most recently in February.
However, she had never stepped on to the podium at national championships in her own right. She started her career as an 800m runner but a switch in her training last year saw her shift her focus to sprints and this paid dividends in January when she finished fourth in the Scottish under-17 championships at 200m with a personal best 25.89.
At the national indoors, she stepped up a distance to take on the longer 400m event and test herself in the older under 20 age group.
She looked comfortable in her heat as she followed Ella Maxwell of Middlesborough around to take one of the two automatic qualifying spots with a PB of 58.45.
In the final she set off fast and as in the heat, followed the Middlesborough athlete around the first lap and through the break from lanes.
Once she hit the back straight on the second lap, however, she attacked and took the lead.
Maxwell responded but Elizabeth pulled away to cross the line in 57.51, smashing the club senior women’s indoor record, and is the sixth fastest ever run by an under 17 Scot indoors.
She said: “I wasn’t expecting the gold and am just really happy.”
Central’s other medallist in the age group Matt Chandler, is no stranger to the podium having won numerous medals at Scottish and UK level in multiple events. This time the 17 year-old decathlete from Balfron was contesting the pole vault where he improved his own club under 20 record with a 4.27m clearance - enough to take second place and a silver medal to add to his collection.
Other Balfron athletes on form were Rachel Methven and Anna Cameron. Rachel threw 8.81m in the shot, a personal best on the full 4kg weight, for fifth place while Anna was close to her personal best in the long jump as she jumped 5.26m for sixth place.
Kieran Halliday was also in great shape as he ran a personal best 7.61 in the 60m and a season’s best 24.41 in the 200m.