Athletics: West Coast success at championships

May 13 2009 by Andrew Weston, Wishaw Press

West best at athletics fest

ALISON Rodger captained the West Coast to victory at the inaugural Scottish Inter-Regional Championships on Sunday as top class athletics returned to Wishaw Sports Centre.

The six team challenge was North Lanarkshire Leisure’s first event organised under the stewardship of former Olympian Yvonne Murray in her role as Senior Athletic Development and Events Officer.

The showcase event replaced the Senior Closed Championship and saw 13 stadium records fall.

West Coast finished with a total of 467 points, ahead of West City in second (430) and Tayside & Fife in third (383).

Skipper Rodger led by example, winning the shot putt competition with a season's best throw of 15.79m, equalling the mark she recorded when winning the Aviva UK Indoor Championships title in Sheffield in February.

She narrowly missed out on her own stadium record by just one centimetre.

Claire Gibson's new 1500m record was one of the most impressive efforts of the day as she smashed the existing best by 12 seconds, clocking 4:17.53 for victory and securing the maximum 10 points for the home team.

Shettleston’s Alasdair Strange was presented with the Ian Borland memorial trophy and a scholarship worth £1250 at the championship.

The pole-vaulter, a student at Glasgow Caledonian University, is now aiming to make the 5.20m qualifying mark for next year’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi – at the same time flying higher than any pole-vault Scot.

The Scottish under-15, under 17 and under 20 championships also took place. For full results visit www.scottishathletics.org.uk

Inter Regional Senior Championships team scores: West Coast (467), West City (430), Tayside & Fife (383), East (331), Central (288), Highland & Grampian (251).

Meanwhile, on Saturday over 180 athletes – in teams of four – battled the extreme weather conditions in the under-13 Superteams competition.

Local club Law and District AAC enjoyed a successful meeting in both the girls’ and boys’ competitions.

Boys Darren Daly, Rory McLaughlin, Evan Jones and Connor Thomson finished in the silver medal position (208 points).

The winning team was VP-Glasgow ‘A’ (212 points).

Law and District AAC ‘A’ Girls took bronze with 161 points thanks to the quartet made up of Nadene Traynor, Pamela McNicol, Heather Baird and Anya Towers.

The winning team was Central AC ‘A’ (209 points).

U13 Superteams results: girls’ top five – 1 Central AC ‘A’ (209), 2 Airdrie Harriers AC (163), 3 Law & District AAC ‘A’ (161), 4 VP-Glasgow ‘A’ (159), 5 Pitreavie AAC ‘B’ (159).

Boys’ top five – 1 VP-Glasgow ‘A’ (212), 2 Law and District AAC ‘A’ (208), 3 Annan & District AC (198), 4 Whitemoss AAC (196), 5 Pitreavie AAC ‘A’ (189).