Best-ever throw hurls Marco to top

Jan 28 2009 by Andrew Weston, Wishaw Press

ATHLETES from Law and District Amateur Athletics Club competed in this month’s District Indoor and Closed Senior Championships at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow.

The star performer for the club who claimed his 'shot' as District Champion was Marco Nicholson.

At his first attempt at these championships Marco excelled with his first personal best (PB) throw of 8.15metres (m), followed by 8.16m on his last throw which secured a well-deserved gold medal and the U13 District Shot Putt title.

That result put Marco on top of the Power of 10 competition for U13 shot putt in Scotland and third in the UK.

This is an excellent achievement for such a young athlete so early in the season.

Another U13 athlete, Darren Daly, won the silver medal when he too claimed a new PB in the 60m heat in a time of 8.63secs.

Julie Dobbin made a smooth transition into the U17 category when she too won the silver medal in the 800m in 2.29.14mins – the third PB of the day for the club.

A bronze medal and two PB runs were well executed by Laura Livesey in the U17 60m where she ran 8.03secs in the final race.

She also gained fourth place in the 200m final.

In the U17 400m, Dougie Frame also claimed bronze in 55.22secs.

Lynn Livesey another athlete performing well, took fourth place in the U17 60m.

She ran a PB of 8.12secs in the final.

Chelcie Dalziel in her first year at U17 stepped up into the 300m race, successfully coming fourth in a PB run of 44.80secs.

She followed that up with a 200m run.

Jonathan Velu came fourth in the U17 800m coming over the line in 2.07.10mins.

Samantha Stevenson ran an excellent race in the U15 800m heats and secured a PB of 2.29.59mins that earned her fifth place in the final.

Unfortunately, a mix-up in communication cost two of the club’s youngest athletes taking their places in their respective U13 800m finals.

Pamela McNicol attending her first ever district competition and only just moving into U13 level, ran her heat extremely well in 2.57.43mins but sadly missed her place in the final.

The same mishap applied to Luke Foss, missing out on his final after coming third in his heat in 2.41.9mins.

The final Law competitor was Rory McLaughlan also running the U13 800m in a respectable 2.44.0mins.

The club’s only U23 athlete competing in the Closed Senior Championships was Gary Grieve.

He claimed well-earned fourth place in the final after a strong third position run in his heat of 1.58.3mins.

Lewis Nicholson, in Glasgow School of Sport colours, claimed the final PB of the day in the U17 Shot Putt with an excellent throw of 11.53metres which saw him secure fourth place. He earlier came sixth in the 60m final after running 8.12secs in the heat.