Oban Sports Hall athletics

SEVENTY young athletes entered the Sports Hall Athletics competition for the Oban area which was held at Atlantis Leisure last Wednesday evening. This event was the third local area competition to be held in Argyll this winter. The series of competitions is promoted by Mid Argyll Athletic Club.

After more than three hours of competition, it was Rockfield and Park schools dominating in the boys competition and in the girls the same two schools and St Columba’s shared the honours.

For once there were no new Argyll age records but a few athletes came fairly close to the existing marks. One athlete close to a record was the under13 champion Poppy McKillop who recorded a time of 24.6 seconds in the two-lap race, only half a second slower than the Argyll age record.

Poppy also excelled in the standing triple jump, leaping out to 6.15 metres.

Emily Pagan from Rockfield school was the under-seven champion just ahead of Hannah Griffin from Park and Alexandra Harris, also from Park.

Niamh Burns from St Columba’s was a clear winner in the under-nine contest thanks to wins in the two-lap race, triple jump and speed bounce, and another girl from St Columba’s, Mia Campbell, was the under-11 champion. Mia had close competition from Zoe MacDonald and Kayla Stewart from Rockfield and Seonaid Burns from St Columba’s. Zoe had an impressive 15.5 metres throw in winning the javelin.

Park school dominated in the under-seven boys’ events with Joe Hill the winner ahead of James Harris.

James Muir from Rockfield won all five events in the under- nines and excelled in the twolap race with 26.9 seconds and 12.50 metres in the javelin.

The under-11s attracted an entry of 15 boys and the contest ended in a three-way tie between Morgan Gemmell from Park, George Pagan from Rockfield and Ewan Dowd from Park.

Morgan won the long jump and javelin throwing 16.75 metres, the same distance as Ryan Hill from Park. George won the high jump with 1.23 metres and recorded 24.5 seconds for the two-lap race which was only 0.2 seconds off the Argyll age record.

The entry in the older age groups was disappointing as has been the pattern at the earlier competitions in Lochgilphead and Mull. Finlay MacLean, Rockfield, won the under-13s with brothers Fraser and Stewart Inglis winning the under-15s and under-17s respectively.

Many of the athletes taking part qualify to compete in the Argyll final to be held at Atlantis Leisure this Sunday, March 19. The final will start at noon with registration between 11am and noon. The final will bring together the best young athletes from the competitions at Lochgilphead, Tobermory and Campbeltown plus the qualifiers from last Wednesday in Oban.