With all the Monday Holidays plus Balerno Children's Gala week lots of folk lose track of which night training is on / not on. A handout has been handed out to those coming along on Wednesdays, but as a reminder...

The only Monday nights when training is not on are Monday 27th May when the Gala evening races and the Rigg race take place, and Monday 3rd June, (Jubilee Day holiday weekend)

The only Wednesday when training is not on is Wed 29th May as this is Balerno Gala week.

Training will be outdoors in Malleny Park so come prepared. (On evenings when the school is open if the weather is awful we have the use of the Gymnasium).

Training will continue until Mon 24th and Wed 26th June, before everyone has a well-deserved break in July. Training will restart in early August.

We are also aiming to have a StarTrack activity week in early August as part of the programme of activities organised through Currie and Balerno Community Schools Partnership. More information will be provided once the arrangements are confirmed.

We have now confirmed participation in the Monklands Cup on Sunday 11 August. This is the "Scottish Cup" for girls and women. We have entered three teams: U 13 girls, U 15 girls and a combined Senior Women/U17 team (U17's can compete as Seniors ). The format is one competitor from each club per event, but there is a larger event programme than for normal meetings. We will be looking to field as strong a team as possible in all age groups – so mark it in the diary now!

Information is now beginning to trickle through about some Open Graded meetings being held locally. At Open graded meetings you can go along and enter for the events on the programme you fancy. It is not a team based meeting, therefore there is no restriction on the number of entries from any club.

Edinburgh: Meadowbank Wed 22 May (400mH, 100m 1500m 300m/400m TrJ, SP, HJ, Jav)

Meadowbank Wed 19 June (Sprint Hurdles, 200m, 800m PV, Hamm, LJ, Disc)

First events 7.00, register (£2.00 per event) at least 30mins beforehand.

Please note: Club training for juniors, and Jogging for adults will be taking place on these evenings, therefore it is very much up to individuals (& parents) to organise themselves to take part in these Open Meetings.

 Glasgow: Scotstoun: Wed 29 May (3/400mH, 100, 1500, Ham, PV, HJ, TrJ)

Scotstoun: Wed 24 July (60mH 100m 800m, Disc, PV, HJ, LJ)

First events 7.00, register (£2.00 per event) at least 30mins beforehand.

Members are encouraged to purchase their own club vest. These are currently priced £12 and are available from Norma Mitchell (449 6020). The club does carry a small supply of vests to meetings, but we can't guarantee that we will have enough of the right size at any given meeting.

A reminder to any parents who would like to start jogging....

Sunday mornings: Meet at Balerno High School Car Park 10.00 am prompt.

Wednesday Evenings: Meet in Malleny Park 8.00 pm

Rigg race Monday 27th May, 7.30 start: Entry forms are available at Balerno Post Office, Balerno High School (notice board by Games area) and downloadable at www.harmenyac.org.uk. Entries are accepted on the night up to 7.15.

Gala Week Monday evening races: The format we came up with last year when the Water of Leith was closed due to Foot and Mouth proved very successful and is now the format which will be used with a few minor modifications to the start / finish areas. There are 7 races for the following age groups: U9, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Boys and girls in each age group run together. The courses start at about 400m for the youngest increasing up to 1000m for the oldest age groups. Medals will be awarded to the first three boys and girls in each age group. (Note that this is for Balerno children or attending school in Balerno)

Gala Day Sprint Races (Sat 1 June): Again we are helping to organise the children's sprint races. There will also be adult races – split into age ranges to give those less young an equal opportunity.

Gala Day Activity stand: We are considering operating a small stand on Gala Day where all-comers can have a go with some throwing events. To do so we will need volunteers........

With all of the above we rely very heavily on committee and parental support, so if you can help out, please get in touch (Bob Douglas 449-6105 or Lyn Carmichael 449 3727)

The current club membership year runs from Oct 2001 to Sep 2002, and we are now chasing the last remaining handful of memberships. A list of those received as at 15 May is included at the end of this Herald. If your (/ your child's) name is not on the list please complete a membership form as soon as possible.

Athletics Scotland is the registration scheme operated by the governing body for athletics in Scotland, and we are obliged to encourage all club members to register with the scheme. The first year of registration is free for junior members, and we usually register newcomers after their first outing for the club. After the initial year AS will send out a renewal directly. Please ensure that you or your child's registration is kept up-to-date. We are obliged, under the rules of competition, to collect £2 from everyone who is not registered when they compete. Please note that the AS scheme is totally separate from the club membership fee plus the membership levy we have to collect.

Those members who are registered should recently have received a copy of PB, the Scottish Athletics magazine and a copy of the entry forms for the summer season track and field championships.

Up-to-date handbooks have recently been distributed to members containing contact details of the committee, coaches etc. To assist in co-ordinating selection and contacting athletes for the various meetings, we've allocated responsibilities according to age group:

Under 11 Norma Mitchell
Under 13 Christina Graham
Under 15 Monika Wilkinson
Under 17 Bob Douglas
Sen Men Betty Gibb (Sprints & Field); Bob Douglas (Middle Distance)
Sen Women Betty Gibb & Bob Douglas
Veteran Bob Douglas

Selection / availability information is then passed to the team manager the day before the meeting.

We now have the detailed results from this meeting

U13 Girls A: 2m 10.77 sec Claire Carmichael, Mhairi Campbell, Louise Campbell, Neisha Kilner
U13 Girls B: 2m 26.85 sec Holly Duncan, Vicki Shanks (U11), Kirsty Jones, Ashley Thomson
U13 Boys: 2m 7.11sec (Final) 2m 7.45sec (Heat) Finlay Anderson, Gordon McKendrick, Chris O'Hare, Fergus McCorkell
U15 Girls A: 2m 6.58 sec Robyn Addinal, Stephanie Lyall, Karen Milligan, Emma Mitchell
U15 Girls B: 2m 6.53 sec Fiona Dewar, Laura Blamire, Kirsty Dewar, Louise Gillespie
U15 Boys (Final) 1m 52.18 sec Kerr Archbald, George McCorkell, Paul Brash, Oliver Kerr
U15 Boys A: 1m 54.37 sec Kerr Archbald, Neil Campbell, Tommy Ashby, George McCorkell
U15 Boys B: 1m 59.11 sec Paul Brash, Oliver Kerr, Liam Narrie, Michael Smith.
U17 Women: 1m 52.88sec (F) 1m 52.00 sec (H) Catherine Graham, Erin McIntosh, Beatrice McCorkell, Stacey Downie

One further statistic we've picked up from the results sheet: only one club had more entries than ourselves, Giffnock North who had nine teams, and they were they only club to have more teams reaching the finals (4)

The first Forth Valley League meeting was extremely competitive and we finished up fifth on the night. But with very little between the 2nd and 5th placed clubs, we can be pleased with the overall performance

We have the details, however we have queried a couple of missing results that could change our position. The results currently stand as: 1 Victoria Park 1061; 2 Livingston 1049; 3 Airdrie 901; 4 Harmeny 887.5; 5 Fife 655.5; 6 Perth Strathtay 540; 7 Greenock Glenpark 310.

Only Stacey Downie (100m 13.14s) from Harmeny competed for the Lothians team as Stephanie Lyall was not fully fit.

Provisional Result: 1. EWM 468; 2 Team West 395; 3 Lothian 388; 4 Forth Valley 368; 5 Aberdeen 364.5; 6= City of Glasgow & Pitreavie 359, Tayside 273.5

With three call-offs in the few days before the match, we were already depleted before arriving at a wet and windy Coatbridge. Because of the conditions we withdrew from a couple of the more risky events, leaving the team sheet even more sparse. We do expect to field a much bigger team for the next match on June 2nd when everyone will have hopefully got over various illnesses, and exams will be completed.

Provisional Result: 1 Cumbernauld 192; 2 Victoria Park 181; 3 Giffnock North 148; 4 Clydesdale 110; 5 Dunfermline & W Fife 88; 6 Harmeny 53.

Kilmarnock have withdrawn from the League.

We also have most of the scores from the first series of Young Athletes League meetings. The clubs in Central Scotland compete in a round robin style tournament where we compete against different clubs at each meeting. The scores that the clubs make at each meeting are combined into an overall league table for Central Scotland. Shown below are the overall tables for Girls and Boys. The clubs we competed against in the first meeting are shown in italics.

GIRLS

Giffnock North 9 372.5; City of Glasgow - 9 351; Edinburgh Woollen Mill 9 317
Pitreavie 8 337; Kilbarchan 8 282.5; Ayr Seaforth 8 224
Central 7 253 ; Kirkintilloch 7 226 ; Dunfermline & W Fife 7 183
West Dunbartonshire 6 216; Falkirk Victoria 6 214 ; City of Edinburgh 6 164
Nithsdale 5 189 ; Fife AC 5 149 ; Law 5 148
Livingston 4 187.5 ; Harmeny 4 134.5 ; Helensburgh 4 113
Dunbar 3 160.5; Lasswade 3 120; Inverclyde 3 90
Perth Strathtay 2 116.5; Irvine 2 50 ; Victoria Park 2 16
Stewartry 1 61; JWKilmarnock 1 5

BOYS

Giffnock North 9 458; Pitreavie 9 412
Kilbarchan 8 455.5; Shettleston 8 367
Clydesdale 7 287; Central 7 257
Nithsdale 6 238 ; Kirkintilloch 6 235
Falkirk Victoria 5 228 ; Fife AC 5 207
Perth Strathtay 4 162; Livingston 4 114.5
Lasswade 3 150; Irvine 3 65
Harmeny 2 112; Dunbar 2 49
Stewartry 1 6
JW Kilmarnock 0 0

Everyone who competes in the London Marathon has their own story to tell, and we con only reproduce a brief flavour of what is was like for those involved. Our leading marathon man, Richard Sharp, ran a personal best, taking over seven minutes off his previous best to finish in an excellent time of 3hrs, 0min 58 secs and a position of 1222. Karin McKendrick, (Gordon's Mum) was very much in the heavy traffic in the middle of the field and finished in a respectable 4hrs 33 min 10sec (position 20370).

Cliff Smith and Bill Stobie (one of our long-serving multi-eventers) had a very special reason for running. Both were running to raise money for the Children's Liver Foundation. Here is their report:

Cliff and Bill have done their bit, so now it’s your turn. All you have to do is send your sponsorship money to us at the address below. Please can you indicate if your donation is eligible for Gift Aid (ie, are you a tax payer) and provide details of your name and address if you are happy for the CLDF to reclaim the tax already paid on your donation. Cheques should be made out to Children’s Liver Disease Foundation.

It is not only the adults who race, there are inter-region junior races. This year Shaun Desport was selected to represent Scotland in the 13-14 boys race. Shaun had a good run finishing first Scot and 11th overall in a field of 70. He had just enough time to see Paula Radcliffe and the leading men near the finish before the Scottish team bus left to head up north.

They Scottish Athletic Yearbook containing the top ranking performances for 2001 has now been issued. These show the twenty (or so) best performances in Scotland. Harmeny athletics (and relay teams) included are listed below.