Tropical conditions and an excellent entry contributed to 3 Scottish age records and numerous PB performances at the Milnbank HA Shettleston Open Graded Meeting. These events cannot go ahead without an army of officials and volunteers who travelled from around the country to make this event such a success. Continued support from Milnbank HA makes this event affordable for the club and athletes to compete. The WD Cross Country Relays are also being supported by Milnbank HA -a great example of partnership working in the community.
The two main events of the evening continue to produce outstanding performances. Long term coach of the club Alex Naylor is remembered in the 3000m event organised in his honour. In an exciting race Fraser Stewart (Cambuslang) just got the better of Scottish U/20 internationalist Jamie Burns of Shettleston in the last few strides. Just behind them Reuben MacDonald of Giffnock a U/17 athlete was rewriting the Scottish age best for the distance in an excellent time of 8mins 32.90. His coach Dudley Walker was a product of Alec Naylor in his early days with Shettleston Harriers before turning to coaching at the East Renfrewshire club. In the female race Esme Dougall (Giffnock) got the better of Becky Dunphy (Victoria Park) and Charlene Manley (Shettleston)
The other featured race of the evening was the Derek McLean Memorial race for U/15 athletes. The top 800m runners of Scotland are invited to this race to remember Derek who tragically lost the battle to cancer after showing great promise at 800m.The trophy has been competed for over 30 years and many of the previous winners have gone on to have very successful careers at senior level. Again, the race was very close with Kieran Fulton (Moorfoot AC) just holding off Luke Culliton (Falkirk) in a very fast time of 2mins 05.10. Five of the boys in race recorded PB performances.
Two other performances of note were Scottish age records by Calum Dick (Giffnock) in the U/13 boys 800m 2mins 07.89 and in the 3000m a u/15 Scottish age record by Craig Shannon (Giffnock) 8mins 55.58. Fantastic performances from these boys.
Just as the above athletes achieved PB performances in perfect conditions at the East End track the results will show numerous other fantastic performances .Well done to all the athletes.