Athletics: National honours for athletic Bravehearts

Feb 19 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

LIVINGSTON and District AAC’s track and field athletes were back in the hunt for medals last week at the Scottish Schools Indoor Track and Field Championships.

And when the tape had been burst, the line had been crossed and dust settled, several county athletes had earned medals and podium places at the event at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall.

In total eight athletes from the Livingston club headed west along the M8 keen on building on the club’s recent success at January’s Scottish Athletics East District Indoor Championships.

It was at this event which brought a haul of nine medals — including four gold's — making the weekend competition the club’s most successful championship in recent years.

And they continued this theme with another winning display at a national competition as under-16 high jumper Mathew Thomson and under-16 shot putter Vicky Dalziel were crowned Scottish Schools bronze medallists.

The day began with Vicky Dalziel competing in the 60m hurdles. She crossed the line with an excellent time of 9.78s in the heats but that was just 0.01s off the time needed to qualify.

However, the disappointment was quickly banished from her mind when she hurled a personal best throw of 9.99m in the under-16 girls shot put.

Her massive hurl brought another bronze medal into the Livingston camp and joins the gold medal she won three weeks ago as East District under-17 shot putt champion on the family sideboard.

Matthew Thomson jumped a whopping 1.70m in the under-16 boys high jump but narrowly missed bettering his personal best of 1.71m.

His PB was set last summer when he picked up a silver medal in the national age group championships — though he was relived to come away with a bronze medal after winning a count back against the fourth place athlete.

And now with less than two month until the start of the summer season the club is currently restructuring its management committee with several long standing volunteers stepping down at the start of March.

The club are therefore looking for a new secretary and treasurer and are offering a fee on an honorarium basis to fill these positions.

Interested parties should contact Alistair Dalgleish on 01506 862 147 or by emailing adalgleish@livingstonaac.com.