The SAL (Men's league) kicked off on Sunday with the first match of the season at Grangemouth. A very young but enthusiastic team headed through and had a great start to the field events with Lewis McGuire (U20) winning the A high jump with a PB of 2.04 and putting him fourth in the UK rankings. Brother Ben McGuire (U20) also had a great start coming second in the long jump with 6.84 and Alexander Busby (U20) and Adam Johnston (U17) came second in the B string high jump and long jump respectively.
Indoors Craig Moriarty came second in the pole vault and Dylan Thomson who has been vaulting only a few weeks cleared 2.20; a great start for his first competition and just short of the standard for points.
On the track the team had only two seniors athltes (David Agnew and Colin Lamont) competing, and unfortunately had no competitors in either of the hurdles or the steeplechase. David ran well in the 400m coming 4th and Ben Grant (U17) ran well in the B string to come 5th considering he had already ran a PB earlier in the 800m A string to come 3rd with a time of 2.01.51.
The afternoon continued with a string of good performances on the track from Kyke Henderson (U20), James Adam (U17), Tyler White (Under 17), Alexander Busby and William Murray (U20) with some seeing PBs. Ben McGuire also switched from field to track to fill in a gap in the 100m B string.
Adam Johnston also turned his hand (or is it feet?) to the triple jump, an event he has only done once before and got a PB of 11.61 to take second place.
Back on the field one of our newest club members, Michael Mellon, competed in his first athletic competition with a very respectable 5th in the javelin with a throw of 31.71. Michael enjoyed it so much he asked if he could fill the slot in the B string discus (even although he hasn't thrown a discus since school) and after watching the Division A guys throw he had a bash and threw 19.44, just short of the 20m standard. Well done to Michael for giving it a go! David Agnew also threw discus and came second in the A string with a throw of 30.14.
Colin Lamont also made his debut on the track for the 5K race but unfortunately took a stitch and had to pull out. I know Colin was really annoyed and frustrated but will be back next match to run again.
The relays were a real case of the team pulling together as by 4 o'clock we were suffering with a few niggles. Thanks to Lewis McGuire and James Adam stepping in we were one of only five clubs who managed to field a relay team in both the 4x100 and 4x400.
The 4x100 consisting of Ben McGuire, Adam Johnston, Lewis McGuire and William Murray ran a cracking race without any practice to come third and the 4x400 team of Ben Grant, James Adam, Alexander Busby and Kyle Henderson also ran great to come fourth. Not bad for two Senior teams that didn't have any seniors!
The team were second overall which is a great start in the fight for promotion to Division 1.
The next match is in Inverness on Sunday 16th June. There will be transpost arranged (either sharing a bus with a couple of other teams or we will send up a couple of cars). It is vital that the Seniors step up here and compete - Fife Schools is the week leading up (date TBC), Scottish Schools is on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th June therefore it is unrealistic to expect U17s and some U20s to be the ones keeping the plan of promotion alive. We really need to keep the momentum going and do well in all four matches.
Colin Lamont will be Team Manager for the remaining three matches and will be looking for confirmation of availability.
Good luck!
Nicola
