Sixth spot for Central athletes
With holidays, illness and other competitions over the weekend taking its toll it was a somewhat depleted Central AC men’s team which travelled to Inverness for their second Division One Track and Field League fixture of the season.
Once results were totalled Central’s team finished in a lowly sixth place on the day and are now fourth overall in the league but there were a string of superb performances from the athletes who made the journey as they took advantage of the excellent weather conditions.
In the first track event, the 400 metres hurdles, Liam Halliday finished in sixth in the A race and newcomer Sam McGuigan was fourth in the B race in his first ever track outing.
The 800 metres saw Tom Watson dominate a quality field to win the A race with Dale Colley likewise controlling the B event to take maximum points. In the 100 metres series it was Under 17 John MacLennan who matched himself against some of Scotland’s best as he finished fifth while another Under 17 Sean Clark, made his debut at this level, to come home fifth in the B race.
Aidan Thompson made his 3000 metres steeplechase debut running a wellcontrolled race to win an exciting race with a superb sprint finish in 9.34.02secs while Lewis Millar proved his credentials with a gritty performance for second in B.
Tom Watson, who had won the 800 earlier, shouldered responsibility in the 400 metres against a top field to finish a close second in A and Jamie Paterson looked close to his best form coming home second in B.
Jamie Crowe and Scott McDonald were always in contention in the 1500 metres as Jamie finished fourth in A and Scott was first in B (4.02.03).
More points came in the 200 metes with John MacLennan seventh in A and Jamie Paterson second in B.
The 5000 metres proved an intriguing race with Cameron Milne making his league debut and finishing a third while Conan McCaughey also ran a strong race to win top B points with 15.18.73.
It was in the field events where the Central team were most depleted but Gary Sweeney stepped up for throwing duties with a third in the shot put, eighth in the discus anda sixth in hammer.
Colin Christie picked up points with a pole vault clearance of 2.60m for third and a 1.40m high jump clearance while Sam McGuigan, also making his field debut, cleared 1.45m in the high jump and had a best of 5.24m in the long jump. Under 17 athlete Keiran Halliday jumped 5.43m before retiring from the day with an injury sustained in warming up for the triple jump an event which saw his brother Liam record a best jump of 10.10metres.
The 4x100 metres relay featured Jamie Paterson, Sean Clark, Liam Halliday and John MacLennan with the team coming home sixth. The 4x400 metres quartet of Jamie Paterson, Aidan Thompson, Dale Colley and Tom Watson finished fourth with 3min 29.62secs only to be disqualified for a technical infringement.
As always there was great back- up from the club’s officials through John Dickson, Tom McMenemy, Meg Sweeney and Kenny Hislop.
Points on the day were: Aberdeen 384; Kilbarchan 278; Victoria Park Glasgow 249; Shettleston 241; Inverness 238; Central 224; Edinburgh 216 and Falkirk Victoria 170. Aberdeen lead the table with 15 points from Victoria Park Glasgow 14; Kilbarchan 12; Central 9; Shettleston 8; Edinburgh 6; Inverness 5 and Falkirk Victoria 3 with all to play for in the last matches at Kilmarnock on July 5 and Meadowbank August 30.