News report about Linwood Meeting 24th April 2013 courtesy of Reed Wyper

On a cold, blustery night, many Kilmarnock Harrier athletes travelled up to Linwood, Glasgow to compete at the Dunren Open Graded meeting. Events ranged from 100m through to javelin.

In the 100m, 15 athletes competed all over 8 heats:
In the first heat, Roy Shankland (U20), Scott Young(U20) and Kuda Tapatapa(U17) competed with Roy taking 1st place in a good time of 11.75. Scott clocked in at 4th running 12.20 with Kuda following behind in 7th with 12.49.

The second heat consisted of three Kilmarnock athletes again. Reed Wyper(U17), Ryan Crolla (U17) and Cameron Wilson (U15). Reed finished a close 2nd in 12.81 in a heavy head wind with Ryan closing in 3rd with a close time of 12.90 and Cameron in 5th clocking 13.26.

Heat 3 showed the first of the girls competing for Kilmarnock with Lorne Kerr(U17) and Caitlin White(U17) both running. Lorne came 5th with a time of 13.67 and Caitlin in 8th with 14.19.

Hannah Bartl, competing with Glasgow School of Sport (U17) was up in the next race when she clocked in first and with a time of 14.19 closely followed by Laura Duncan(U17) with 14.24 in 3rd. Robert Brady(U13), one of the younger athletes in the club showed himself coming in 6th clocking 15.19.

Heat 5 showed the rise of the two newbie’s, Kirsty Pattison (U17) and Madeline Lawton (U15). Anna Balls, part of the 200m indoor relay bronze medalist team, showed consistency amongst that tough head wind of -3.5m/s with a time of 14.21 in 1st, followed by Kirsty in 3rd with 14.98 and right behind her was Madeline in 4th advancing through in a time of 15.30.

Evie Bartl (U15) won her 100m in 15.56s with an easier head wind of -2.6m/s. Erin Connelly (U13) ran the following heat pushing through in 3rd with 14.93.

The 800m followed next and in the first heat, Cameron Mackie and Roy Shankland (U20) both represented Kilmarnock with Cameron finishing 5th and Roy 8th, but unfortunately due to a photo-finish error, their times had not registered. With the photo-finish working, heat 4 had Bethany Ross and Amanda Humes (U20) representing the club. Bethany powered through to win her race in 2:24:92 and Amanda following through in 6th , clocking 2:31:75.

At Linwood, the 200m heats go by slowest times first to fastest times last. Robert Brady was the first club member to compete. Running in heat 5 with a gentle headwind of -0.1, he came 4th adding 31.20 to his list of times. Erin Connelly followed in the heat after that pushing through herself over the line in 6th finishing with 31.01.

Hannah Bartl competed in the longer sprint as well coming 3rd with a personal best of 28.39. Anna Balls, Laura Duncan and Madeline Lawton closing in with Anna in 4th-28.81; Laura in 5th- 28.85 and Madeline with 30.79. Lorne Kerr ran a season’s best of 27.59 in 2nd with Kirsty Pattison in 5th finishing her night with 28.50.

Heat 10 was one of the concluding races of the night with Reed and Ryan finishing the night in 4th and 5th in 25.74 and 26.11 (PB). The final 200m consisted of a close battle between training partners Scott Young and Kuda Tapatapa. Kuda pressed through the race to finish 3rd in a time of 24.25 and Scott behind him in 24.54.

In the field events, Cameron Wilson wore the blue and white in the javelin throw, throwing 26.15m. Eilidh Gardiner(U13) threw 13m (PB) exactly and Evie Bartl threw a brilliant 23.01m. Eilidh and Erin Connelly both competed in the shot putt. Eildh threw a strong 5.85m (PB) and Erin with a good 4.90m. Kirsty Pattison, a common long jumper, jumped 3.80m in the long jump.

Reed Wyper