Published: Thursday, 4th September, 2008 5:25pm

Home track inspires Pitreavie athletes to medal haul

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Eilidh Child

PITREAVIE athletes were in medal-winning form at the Scottish Senior Track & Field Championships and Junior Relay Championships as they competed at their home track at Pitreavie Athletics Centre at the weekend.

Top performance came from the ever impressive Eilidh Child n the 400m hurdles. Having thought she had broken the 57-seconds barrier for the first time in the heats when the clock showed 56.98 only to be rounded up to 57.00, she made no mistake in the final, storming round the track in a new lifetime best of 56.90, which was also a championship record as well as a new club record.

Also in the 400m hurdles, Francis Smith retained his title from last year winning in 52.63 and added the 110m hurdles title clocking 14.70.

Paul McCluskey was in dominant form in the 3000m steeplechase as he ran away from the rest of the field to retain his title with a time of 9:36.87.

All three athletes" West Fife coaches Norman Gardiner, John MacDonald and John Wands also received medals as the coaches of winning athletes.

To add to these, a delighted Stacey Downie ran a powerful 200m to come through in the final 50m to take her first senior title in 24.77 and let out an excited screech as she crossed the line.

There were four silver medals won by club athletes. On the field there was a double silver medal performance by Mhairi Porterfield, who threw 55.15m in the hammer and then 12.81m in the shot putt.

Club master Norma Bruce made a late decision to participate in the javelin and it proved to be a good one as she took the silver medal with a throw of 25.08m.

The under-15 girls" 4x100m A team of Kirsten Galbraith, Bethanie Finlayson, Anna Robertson and Kristy Armstrong broke a long-standing club record from the 1970s (the previous record-holding team contained Olympic legend Linsey MacDonald) when they won the silver with a time of 50.47.

The under-15 girls" B team of Jessica Barrows, Rose Fagan, Naomi Fox and Claire Duncan also grabbed a medal with the bronze in the same race with a time of 52.54.

The under-15 boys" 4x100m team of Glen Murray, Euan Dyer, Joseph Millar and Daniel McAtear also won a bronze medal with a time of 48.70. The final medal was won by Stacey Downie in the 100m where she ran 12.27.

Just missing out on the medals were Jamie Coull, in the 200m, where he finished fourth with a time of 21.93; Ryan Oswald recorded a season"s best 10.66 in the 100m of to place fourth; Craig Robertson in the 800m with 1:52.28, a personal best for fourth place; John Newsom, who ran his fastest 500m for a few years to also place fourth in a time of 14:35.44; Jayne Clark who also ran the 5000m to place fourth in a time of 18:16.67; Stuart Chisholm, who vaulted 3.50m, the same height as the bronze medallists but lost out on count back to place fourth and Caitlyn Mackie, who threw 47.74m to also place fourth.

Also in action over the weekend was Anthony Young, who was competing for Scotland at the UK School games.

Young was running in the 4x400m relay team where Scotland came out victorious winning the race in a time of 3:19.75 with Young running a 50.6 split on his leg.