The sun shone down all day on what was a great day of track and field athletics at the Highland Athletics OGM with HIPPO at Queen’s Park Stadium in Inverness and without a doubt it was the young throwers who produced some first class performances on the day. Five junior athletes are now currently ranked in the top 5 in Scotland with three of these athletes ranked as No 1.

Top performance of the day was produced by Paula Gass from Inverness Harriers. In a tremendous season opening competition where all her throws were further than she had ever thrown before, Paula added almost 6 meters to her personal best to throw 34.00m in the Under 17 women’s Javelin. This performance places Paula as the number 1 ranked Under 17 athlete in Scotland and when ranked with Scottish senior athletes Paula currently ranks 3rd. Competing in her first year as an U17 athlete, Paula is putting herself on the radar for javelin having also made the top 10 ranking spot in the UK at Under 17 level. This top performance also qualifies Paula for inclusion in the Highland Regional Throws Squad.

Two of the youngest javelin throwers of the day, equally impressed all at the track side by launching the javelin out well past the 20m mark with both athletes securing the No1 ranking spot in Scotland. In the U15 girls event, Caithness AAC athlete Shannon Eyers threw 23.54m and with this as Shannon’s first time competing with the 600g javelin there certainly looks to be a lot more to come over the season. Keeping the side up for the boys, was Inverness Harrier, U13 Connel MacDonald who threw 25.46m but Connel’s talents are not just confined to the javelin, he also threw 8.60m in the shot gaining a second place in the Scottish rankings and with talents in a number of events this will be an exciting season ahead for the young athlete.

Both Anna Giongrandi (Inverness Harriers) and Graham Nicol (Nairn AAAC) threw PB’s securing a top 5 Scottish ranking in the process. Anna threw 31.49m for 3rd spot in the U20 women rankings and Graham holds 4th spot for the U17 men with a throw of 35.28m. The star performance of the day in the high jump came from Ian Coghill of Inverness Harriers. In his first year as an U17, Ian added a huge 11cm to his personal best clearing 1.81m or in ‘old money’ 5 foot 11 inches which is 2 inches taller than the height of the average man in the UK.

The times on the track were hampered by a particularly strong wind yet despite the wind athletes still managed to run PB’s giving an indication that their winter’s training has gone exceptionally well. Track star of the day was James McPhail (Inverness Harriers) U20 who took 0.75 seconds off his PB to run 51.01s in the 400m and he also ran a second PB with 23.23s in the 200m. This points to a great season ahead for James whose primary event on the track is the 400m Hurdles.

In a terrific season opener, over 50 personal bests were recorded by athletes during the day’s competition and now eyes are turning towards the other 3 venues of Round 1 of the HIPPO competition. Orkney competes on the 18th April with Shetland on the 19th and Stornoway complete the first round of HIPPO the following weekend; it will be 2 weeks before we can see where the clubs of the north stand in this year’s HIPPO competition.

Thanks to Tracy Tamijmarane