2nd Equal FVL Start for Team Borders

Re-arranged to Livingston’s Craigswood track, the Forth Valley League got underway on Saturday with Team Borders defending the Division 1 league title which they have won for the last two years.

But with only six lanes at Craigswood for the eight competing teams, an adjusted timetable was required to accommodate each of the 100m races being split into two heats, with combined finishing positions then ranked by time. That meant twenty-four 100m races for A and B competitors across the three age groups U11, U13 and U15 and the consequential time constraint unfortunately saw the 4x100m relays, often a high scoring event for Team Borders, cancelled for this match.

On a chilly and breezy but thankfully dry grey day, there were some excellent performances with five individual ‘A’ string winners. Ellie O’Hara and Michael Girdler made it an Under 15 100m double, with TLJT’s Samantha Dagg also taking the spoils in U13 Girls’ race. And in the field events there were ‘A’ wins for the Chirnside pair of Hannah Hamilton Meikle in the U15 Girls’ Shot and Ben Evans in the U15 Boys’ Javelin – by a sneaky 2cm.

With Ellie and Michael both now “first claim” members of Edinburgh AC, but still secondary members of Moorfoot Runners, Team Borders were grateful for their loyalty to the Borders cause, the Forth Valley League rules allowing them to retain their allegiance to their club of origin in this particular competition.

Sam McAneny (U13B 100m), Ewan Christie (U13B 800m) and Thomas Hilton (U11B 800m) took commendable and very valuable second places and there were ‘B’ string wins for Ben Evans (U15B 100m), David Cathcart (U13B 100m) and Gregor Collins (U15B 800m).

Once the results had been checked and the event points totalled up, Team Borders finished joint second in the match along with Dunfermline on 358 points, with Edinburgh close on their heels in fourth on 348 points. Winners on the day were Pitreavie with 373.5 points.

Report by Gregor Nicholson Team Manager

Click link to download copy of the report: Report FVL 1st Match Report

Click link to download results: Forth Valley League Match 1 Results April 2017