2014 review

Over the next few days I expect you’ll see lots of reviews of 2014 and look forward to 2015 so we thought we’d jump on the bandwagon.

Since we moved to the Ayrshire Athletics Arena (AAA) in 2012 a lot has happened at Kilmarnock Harriers and 2104 was no different. Hopefully this gives a short recap of how we have developed. Apologies if I miss any major achivements or events but this is written from memory and a little input from others.

Club membership continues to grow and we now have over 450 members. After the 2012 Olympics the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in the summer produced another upsurge in interest in athletics

At times throughout the year we’ve had to adopt a waiting list for new junior members as we’ve run at capacity in terms of both space and coaches. In response we introduced a new Wednesday night session for Juniors and, from 1^st December, we also added Monday night session.  None of this growth can be achieved without the commitment of our coaches and parents and others stepping forward to support our aim to deliver quality athletics training, with a bit of fun.

The Commonwealth games had a big impact on Kilmarnock Harriers. The baton relay travelled through East Ayrshire with 8 members of the club being baton carriers at some point. The AAA was the training camp for the Scottish Commonwealth games athletics team and we saw athletes from many other countries use the facility as part of their preparation.

AAA, supported by the Club has hosted our own Track & Field Club Championships, a number of Open Graded events, together with for the first time the Scottish Track & Field championships (unfortunately over a miserable weekend in August). Volunteers from the club helped out at these events and others including East Ayrshire Schools Sportshall Athletics, the Festival of Sports for Disabled youngsters and away from the Arena helped other groups to organize school Commonwealth games events, Children in Need fundraising runs and the Galston 150^th Anniversary Cairn race.

We’ll continue this when we host the 2015 Scottish Masters Cross Country championships at the AAA on 31^st January.

In addition to a couple of “social“ club events – The Rowallan Rosebowl in the summer and the Christmas Handicap – the Club also hosted its own Cross Country event, organized the Ruby Young Fun run which raised over £600 for the Ayrshire Hospice and in the last month recognized the contribution to the club over many years of Kilmarnock’s most active 80 year old, Hugh Rankin.

In terms of performance, a number of Seniors had great performances on the roads, in particular over the marathon distance where Scott Martin took his PB down below 2.40 which ranks him 7^th in the UK for his age group, as well as some excellent performances in other distances. Tony Rodden and David McLeod both broke the 3hour barrier in far flung Amsterdam and Fort William. Ladies captain Kara Tait continues to perform well and represent West District.

In Juniors, medals were won at many events in both West District and National events including Lauren Greig, Laura Duncan, Lorne Kerr, Evie Bartl Sophie Rowan, Scott Caldow, Scott Young and Kuda Tapatapa, with Kuda going on to be selected to represent Scotland in Schools and Celtic games.

Looking ahead to 2015 we want to see greater success and Kilmarnock Harriers profile raised not just in the local area but throughout the running community with increased levels of participation in track & field events, road and hill races.   We need to communicate with you better about what’s on and which events in particular we would expect to see the Harriers vest well represented across all age groups.

Having recently attended the Scottish Athletics Club Leaders Conference it’s encouraging to note that many of the things we have done are being replicated by other clubs but also let us see areas we can look to improve on from club structure, membership records, event participation and communication. All things which will be looked into in the months ahead.

Finally, a big thanks to all the coaches, volunteers, committee members and the staff at the AAA who have helped us through 2014.

Happy, injury free, running, throwing or jumping in 2015.