Annual Awards

Hugh’s Cup and the Ferguson Trophy are two awards donated to the Club in 2015 by long standing Club members Hugh Rankin and Matt Ferguson.

The awards are presented to the Junior member and Senior member, nominated by anyone in the Club, who in the opinion of the judging panel demonstrate aspects of achievement, contribution, improvement and participation.

Hugh’s Cup

Finlay Walker was this year’s recipient of Hugh’s Cup.  Finlay joined the Harriers aged 9 and in 2014, at age 12, was drawn towards the pole vault.  Not a natural choice for “a small skinny boy” (his coach Harald Bartl’s words).  Seven months later, with hard work and dedication from both athlete and coach and Finlay was Scottish u13 champion.

The 2015 season meant Finlay moved up an age group and was one of the younger competitors in the u15 group.  Despite this Finlay’s competitiveness and season went from strength to strength with a Gold medal at the Scottish Schools Championship and later a Silver at the Scottish Age Group Championships.  He ended the season clearing a PB of 2.86m and has since gone over 3m.

This progress has been achieved through the development of a more disciplined, planned and focused approach to training for an event few take on.

 

 

Ferguson Family Endeavour Trophy

Connell Drummond was the recipient of the Ferguson Trophy.  Connell will be known to many in the Club as an active member for many years, coach in recent years and past Men’s captain and committee member.

2015 saw Connell continue his commitment to coaching in the Junior section, whilst maintaining his own training – often squeezed in before heading to the Club to coach, in support of his participation in many races across the country as well as overseas.

These races resulted in PBs for Connell across a range of distances.  Connell gained lifetime best times over 5k, 5 miles, 10k, 10 miles, ½ Marathon, and a big chunk off his marathon time as he ran 2.43 in Lyon in October. It also wasn’t unheard of for Connell completing up to 16 mile runs in-between his work, and taking the Juniors for training sessions.

Whilst these were the winners it was great to receive nominations for a number of our members and read of the efforts and achievements of a number of our athletes, coaches and volunteers.  With over 400 members it’s easy to miss a lot of what is going on and being done.

Just some of the nominations recognised:

• an appreciation of the commitment over many years of coaches;
• the mentoring performed by coaches not just in an athletics capacity but in the personal development of athletes under their charge
• new members grasping opportunity and moving from being a parent who dropped off their kids to an active member making great strides in their own fitness, race participation and supporting others.
• the dedication and effort of our junior athletes in getting to training, never mind the commitment to training itself, along with regularly representing the Club.