Western Isles Track and Field Championships 2010
Incorporating 2nd Hippo Event
and the Sports World Mile

Adrienne's Photo Gallery - Ross's Photo Gallery

WITF Results - Hippo Results

The track and field championships have seen some fine performances over the years from athletes of established Isles clubs, North Uist AAC and Stornoway Running &AC. It is now encouraging that Daliburgh have set up an active club with newly qualified coaches leading South Uist teams in island events with an enthusiastic group of young athletes!  The weather while some what windy for fast track times was dry and made for an enjoyable day of competition on the newly refurbished track.

“Getting over it “… Quickly

The under 11 age group is the “entry” age group to the championships and there were some very good individual performance in the four, run, jump and throw events they contested. In the boys events Kyle Munro and Ross Budge (both SRAC) were the most successful young athletes of the day, Kyle with wins in the 75 meter sprint and 600 middle distance and Ross with three from four top three places! Rory Mighton, SRAC jumped a little further than Ross to win the long jump and there was a fairly emphatic win in the shot putt for Uisdean R Smith, SRAC. Rory, Ross and Kyle all did well in the winter cross country season, the 3 race winter series continues to filter new talent from the schools to the club.

Stars in the making in the girls event were SRAC’s Catriona Rigby with wins in 600m and long jump and a second place in the 75meters sprint. Kayreen MacLeod of NUAAC won the sprint ahead of Catriona by one tenth of a second and also took third in the 600 and second in the long jump. Emily Munro had victory in the shot putt competition in a SRAC one, two, three ahead of Caitlin MacKenzie and Sarah Murray.

There was very close competition in the boys under 13’s as SRAC pair of Connor MacLean and Alasdair Rigby fought most of the top placings with NUAAC runner Paul Morrison. All three have very different styles; Connor strong in competition, Alasdair bounding with great strides and Paul with a compact smooth running action! All will see much of each other through the coming years. But in the development years ahead there will be strong competition in the track events from SRAC’s Michael MacMillan, NUAAC’s Douglas Muncaster and Stornoway’s James Morrison! In the sprints Alasdair and Connor won the 100m and 200m respectively, with Connor just winning the 800m by the closest of margins ahead of team mate Michael MacMillan. Then in the hurdles Alasdair secured a second win in a great race to watch over Connor and Michael. In the throws Connor won his third championship event in the javelin and SRAC’s Finlay Summers had a big win in the shot putt.

There was also very close competition throughout the girls under 13 events and some youngsters really caught the eye! Amanda Nicolson had wins in the 100m, sprint hurdles and long jump. Her SRAC club pal Peigi MacKellar had successes in the 200m and 800m, which was a particularly awesome win. Peigi’s disappointment on home soil at the Western Isles Cross Country Championships at Harris earlier in the year can be put in “file13” with this superb 800m win! The Uist girls showed really well in the throwing events with clean sweeps in the shot and javelin! Mairi MacIntosh NUAAC won the put, while Gwennan Kirk led the South Uist team to a clean sweep of the Javelin! In the high jump SRAC’s Eilidh MacLeod won from Gwennan in second.

In the boys under 15 event the athlete that really caught the eye and possible new to track and field events, was NUAAC’s Owen MacInnes. Owen ran very well to claim a sprint double ahead of Joeseph O’Drisceoil who had a successful outing at the North Championships. In the distance and jump events Campbell MacDonald, SRAC continued winning ways in the 800m and long jump and a second in the high jump in a close round of jumps. But clearing a height of 1meter 40 Mathew Walker of South Uist won gold by two centimetres! Meanwhile in the girls event SRAC’s Jenny MacTaggart continued on from her North schools successes with a sprint double but had to settle for a second place in the long jump behind training pal Jodi Mackay. A fitter Jodie may well see some close sprints action between the pair before the season ends? Along with Amy Ramsay and Kara Hanlon who took second and third respectively in the sprints SRAC have a very useful sprint quartet! Perhaps Adrienne will see if a 4 x 100meter relay time trial can be arranged on club night? Uner 15 girls quartet versus SRAC all comers/ Or could they even take the under 13 boys …. ? What about even an Ali Summers 1 lap challenge V the under 13 boy’s and the under 15 girls quartets then… ?
Meanwhile in the throws the dominance was with Uist again with South Uist’s Kerri MacNeil winning the shot.

North Champion Alasdair Summers did show his strength in the sprints with wins in 100m, 200m and 400m! His time of 11.60 in the 100 meter only one tenth of a second from the World Island Games standard! It was also good to see NUAAC’s Graham Black back running injury free and well to record a winning 1500m time of 5minutes 07. Jamie Bambridge won the triple jump with a hop step and jump of 11.21 meters and could well make the qualifying WIG qualification standard of 12.90, certainly a goal to aim for! Top girls on the day were SRAC pair Alicia MacSween and Rebecca Munro. Alicia won a sprint double and long jump, while Rebecca won the 800, triple jump and the 300m in a time of 47 seconds.

Now competing at under 20 Ceit Stewart defied the wind to clock a new 3K personal best time of 12.57.77 seconds a good improvement with several championships yet to come this season! Saving Ceit from a lonely seven and a half laps in her PB run was her PE teacher Alastair Dunlop who helped with the pace and it proved to be just the “trick” for a fine run in difficult conditions! That was 6 times into a back straight wind!

SRAC were delighted to have Scottish Athletics representation at the event as Julie Wyatt (Regional Development) attended and competed in the shot putt. Julie’s time at the shot putt circle was very helpful to Al Crae and Dorcus Frame and shot putt coaching tips will have been picked up! Julie also competed and there was a ladies competition she won from Dorcus and Kristine Munro.

SRAC wish to thank all the volunteers that officiated at the finish line, sand pits, shot circle, jump mats and registration. Also all involved in set-up and clean up; a successful day would not have been possible without this help!

A Tupper