The Club Champs this year was back and with nearly 160 athletes entered across track, field and road running it proved to be a popular competition on the athletics calendar. In addition to all the athletes we had around 80 club volunteers working behind the scenes and over the two days and without everyone's help we could never have put such a great competition on.
The event was held over Friday/Saturday which worked fairly well, however the condensed timetable on Friday meant a lot of athletes had up to four events on Saturday with many of them clashing. Hopefully next year we can return to the Saturday/Sunday combination or potentially look at a different format.
Friday kicked off with a bang, whilst most athletes were outside Anna Gordon equaled the Scottish Indoor U20 Pole Vault record with a vault of 3.90m. Iona Crawford ran an outstanding 300m to be the first winner of the Sean McQueen Memorial Salver. I put my money on the U15 300m Club record going next time Iona competes at this distance.
The sun didin't shine much on Saturday but this didn't dampen the enthusiasm or spirits of all our athletes with many picking up numerous PBs over the weekend. We also saw the Road Runners take to the track to finish their 5mile handicap race.
For many it was their first competition and they are now raring to go for the rest of the season.
With the backing of Cooper Software who contributed substancially to the running costs of this event, and with monies raised from the raffle, tombola and cafe we hope that this event will manage to break even. That in itself would be quite an achievement. Pictured below is company director Frank Cooper with all the age group champions.
We were also very lucky to have a couple fo students from Fife College come along and film the track events. Once editing is complete these will be published online. We are going to try and secure some funding for them for the Trophy Meeting so they can come back and film both track and field next time.
We hope everyone had a great time, as ever feedback and suggestions for improvements are always welcome.
I hope we can continue to harness all the enthusiasm shown by athletes and volunteers over the weekend into securing the future of our club. For me, the Club Champs displayed a huge amount of passion, willing and togetherness and that with everyone pulling together great things can happen.
