Young guns do club proud

Central AC men’s team were in Kilmarnock on Sunday for the final meeting of this season’s Scottish Division One Track and Field series.

A number of the club’s under-17s made their debut in the league and acquitted themselves well against some of Scotland’s top athletes as Central finished seventh on the day, slipping to sixth place overall in the league.

In the 400m hurdles David Lindsay was fourth in the ‘A’ race in 68.37, tackling some of the worst of the weather.

There was a high standard in the two Division One 800 metres races, with Jack Kerr running 1.59.16 in the ‘A’ event for sixth and Under-17 Lewis Dow finishing fourth in the B race in 2.04.52.

Sprinting duties were passed to the under-17s Euan Smith and Jack Haughton, with Smith taking fifth ‘A’ in 11.97 and Haughton equalling his personal best with 11.94 in fifth ‘B’.

Distance running stalwart Michael Wright was always well placed in the 3000m steeplechase clocking 9.44.15 for third ‘A’ place, while the ever-reliable David Lindsay finished in third ‘B’ in 11.18.28.

Wright also came fourth in the 10,000m ‘A’ in 32.02.16.

The 1500m saw yet further improvement from Jack Kerr – third in 4.02.72 and the 200m ‘A’ race saw Under 17 Daniel Ferguson reduce his pb to 24.16 in seventh place.

In the field the throwing duties were covered by Graham Porterfield throwing a best of 11.07m in the shot putt for third ‘A’ points followed by 34.72m in the hammer and a best of 30.9m in the discus, gaining excellent fourth places in these events.

Euan Smith and Jack Haughton were experiencing their first taste of Men’s League action in the long jump, with Euan jumping to a best of 5.56m and Jack producing a best of 5.18m to pick up more much needed points for the team.

Daniel Ferguson tackled the triple jump, finishing in fourth ‘A’ and improving his pb to 11.39m.

Under-17s made up the 4x100m quartet, with Rian Harvey, Daniel Ferguson, Jack Haughton and Euan Smith bringing the baton home in fourth in 46.91.

The guest 100m races saw pbs from under-17 athletes Aidan Grevemberg (11.82) and Daniel Ferguson (11.87 and a debut run of 12.83 from Rian Harvey.

As always there was great back-up from the club’s officials through Stuart MacFarlane as a field judge, John Dickson as track judge, plus Tom McMenemy on timekeeping duty.