The first year of our Throws and Jumps Grand Prix is at the halfway stage after two of the four events.
Now athletes, coaches and parents are preparing for the remaining two fixtures with the next up taking place this forthcoming weekend – on July 25 and 26.
Craigswood stadium in Livingston is the venue once again for the Throws and Jumps Grand Prix and, after numerous PB performances so far in April and June, we’d love to see the trend continue.
George Evans and Kirsty Costello came up with terrific performances in the June event and of course George has now claimed a World Youths discus medal in Colombia over the weekend!
Mary Anderson has kindly agreed to take the entries for the two remaining GP events and can be emailed here (note, not the scottishathletics email address)
The final weekend date for diaries and training schedule is September 5 and 6 and Livingston is again the venue.
Entry to all four events was cheaper and a number of people have already signed-up in that way. But those who choose to enter on the day will pay twice what they do if entering now so please email Mary if you want to compete this Saturday or Sunday at Livingston.
There is a lot of info about this weekend’s competition on the Events section – including the timetable and start-lists.
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Callum Hawkins – fine half marathon debut in Glasgow last year
Scotland and GB International Callum Hawkins is lining up another crack at the half marathon distance – at the Great North Run in England’s North-East in September.
Hawkins, who was fifth at the Euro Cross U23 in Bulgaria last December and of course competed in the 10,000m at Hampden at the Commonwealth Games, took on his first run at the distance at the Great Scottish Run last October and won the Scottish title with a superb debut run of 63.06.
The elite men’s field is attracting notable international entrants: 2014 London Marathon runner up Stanley Biwott of Kenya; South African Stephen Mokoka, winner of the 2014 Great Scottish Run; former Pan American Games 5000m champion Juan Luis Barrios of Mexico and Japan’s Masato Kikuchi, who finished 18th in last year’s World Half Marathon Championship race.
Mary Keitany will be on a revenge mission when she returns to the scene of her record-breaking triumph in the 2015 Morrison’s Great North Run on Sunday 13 September.
Last year the 33-year-old Kenyan was unstoppable in the world’s leading half marathon, breaking Paula Radcliffe’s course record on Tyneside by a second with a winning time of 65 minutes 39 seconds in the elite women’s section. This time, Keitany will be up against the Ethiopian runner who stopped her from completing a hat-trick of victories in this year’s London Marathon.
Keitany, the 2009 world half marathon champion and holder of the world best for 25km on the road, lined up in the English capital in April hoping to repeat her triumphs of 2011 and 2012. She had to settle for second place, 18 seconds behind Tigist Tufa, who prevailed in 2.23.22.
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Sam Fernando – big progress
Sam Fernando from Gateside and Fife AC continues to make steady progress as a T20 performance athlete and hopes one day to receive the call up for Scotland and Great Britain.
The Fife teenager has recently left Bell Baxter HS to further his education as a college student. During his time at Bell Baxter Sam represented the Department for pupils with additional support needs at local and national level with great distinction in athletics, cross country and football in particular.
Disability Sport Fife supported Sam through classification on his 16th birthday and he has not looked back since. In June 2013 at the Fife Schools Athletics Championships, prior to completing the international classification process, Sam ran 5:21.7 for 1500m and finished 5th.
In June of this year, at the UK Youth Development U17/U20 League Division North Premier 1 in Preston, Sam recorded 4:31.8 over the same distance to confirm how much he has progressed with support from coach Ron Morrison at Fife AC.
Sam is currently ranked 8th for T20 1500 and 800 metres across all age groups and ranked 1 for 5000m following a personal best time at the 2015 Scottish Schools Championships of 17:04.74. Sam’s GB ranking for T20 U17 athletes over two miles is 2 which yet again confirms the enormous potential of this young Fife teenager.
Like all successful young athletes Sam has superb family support and will head off for the first time to Bedford for the UK Age Group Championships in August where he is entered for the T20 1500m. Another exciting opportunity ahead for the Fife teenager will be to run in Central Park New York on a forthcoming family holiday.
Fife AC is recognised by Disability Sport Fife as an outstanding inclusive athletics club. Sam Fernando is the most recent athlete to progress through the club’s coaching structure that involves inclusive coaches such as Dave Francis, Elspeth Wallace, Rachel Edger and Ron Morrison.
Earlier this year, Sam was invited to attend a scottishathletics junior training camp and last year Sam was awarded the Disability Sport Fife ‘Junior Athlete of the Year’ award.
Richard Brickley
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Craigswood track at Livingston
There’s a new event on the club fixture list this summer with Livingston holding an Open Combined Events Championships and Open Mile Championships at Craigswood on Saturday 8 August
This is a great opportunity for club athletes with an interest in multi-events or middle-distance running to try something new at their local track.
COMBINED EVENTS
The Combined Events Championships is a pentathlon (five events) for U13 to SEN athletes and a quadrathlon (four events) for U11s. The events included are:
Quadrathlon (U11) – 80m, 600m, Long Jump and Shot Putt
Pentathlon (U13/U15/U17/U20W/SW) – Sprint Hurdles, 800m, High Jump, Long Jump and Shot Putt
Pentathlon (U20M/SM) – 200m, 1500m, Long Jump, Discus and Javelin
Medals will be presented for 1st/2nd/3rd place for each age group (U11/U13/U15/U17/U20/SEN).
MILE
Mile races will be seeded based on performance – not on age group – with the heats ordered fastest to slowest.
Overall age group placings will be determined based on electronic timing with medals presented for 1st/2nd/3rd place for each age group (U13/U15/U17/SEN)
Entry: Livingston Open Combined Events Championships
Entry: Livingston Open Mile Championships
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Tags: Callum Hawkins, Fife AC, George Evans, Great North Run, Jumps and Throws Grand Prix, Livingston and District AAC, Sam Fernando
International
Track & Field
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