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We received the sad news that one of our most popular sprinters from the 1950's, Andy Herron died at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on Saturday the 8th of December after failing to recover from a routine operation.

He will be sadly missed by family and friends. Funeral to be held at Clydebank Crematorium at 11:30am this coming Friday, 21st December.

More information is available on this page.

There was a good turnout for the Christmas Handicap on Saturday the 15th of December at Scotstoun.  The under 13's beat the handicapper and finished in the first three places.  Georgina Callander ran a great Short Two in a watch time of 12:48.

The winner of the U15's and U17's race was Max Ralston who finished in a watch time of 9:15, just ahead of Max Aitchison who completed the course in a watch time of 9:45.

Joe Doyle was the winner of the Senior Mens Race with a watch time of 19:37 for the McAndrew course of 3 and a quarter miles.

Well done to everyone who took part and special thanks to the parents and coaches who turned out to make sure the event went ahead as planned.

The U11's and U13's 2 Mile Handicap

The U15's and U17's 2 Mile Handicap

The Senior 3 and a quarter mile Handicap.  (McAndrew)

Everyone is invited to take part in our Christmas Road Race on Saturday the 15th of December.  If you would like to take part, you should meet in the Pavilion at Scotstoun in time for a 12.30pm start.

Competitors should arrive bearing a gift for the Lucky Dip. Value in the region of £4 - £5. e.g. Selection boxes/sweets/chocolates for the younger athletes and Bottle of Wine/Box of Biscuits, etc for the adults.

We're hoping for a large turnout on the day with competitors aged from 9 to Masters.  It's a special event and it's not just for the endurance Athletes.  The event is a handicap race, with the slowest athletes and those not familiar with the distance starting first.

The distances for the event will be 2 miles for the juniors and the 3 and a quarter mile McAndrew Course for the seniors.

Parents will be most welcome as are any volunteers to help with stewarding the course.

Special thanks once again to Gordon and Julie McGhee for generously donating the cakes and biscuits.  Hot drinks will be available after the race.

The Kelvin Hall is closed this week from the 10th to the 17th of December.  There will be no training sessions for the U11's and U13's.

The U15's and U17's will train at Scotstoun from 7pm as normal.

VP-Glasgow had a successful day at Irvine Academy on Saturday 8th of December, with several excellent performances. 

Hollie Young was the 2nd U15 individual girl to finish the 4400m course in a time of 17:05 and was part of the winning team along with Sarah Potter and Michaela Stephen.

Max Aitchison was the 1st U13 individual boy to finish the course in a time of 11:24 and was part of the winning team along with Lewis Boyle and Findlay Parker.

Josephine Moultrie was the 3rd U17 individual to finish the course in a time of 17:21, just ahead of her team-mate Rhian Dawes.

Nicola Hood was the 1st U20 to finish in a time of 23:59, just ahead of Lindsay MacNeill who was the 1st Senior with a time of 24:07.  Together with Jill Knowles, they were the 1st team to finish.

Congratulations to all our medal winners.  The full results are available at this link.

Schools Pentathlon International

Several VP-Glasgow athletes were representing Scotland at the International Pentathlon at the Kelvin Hall on Saturday 8th of December.

Andrew McFarlane 2701 pts was part of the U16 Scotland team that won Silver medals and Calum Innes 3472 pts was part of the Bronze medal winning U18 team.

Lucinda Logan 2856 pts and Lara Davidson 2776 pts just missed out on a team medal while competing at U18.

The full results are available at this link.

The Road Race was held on Thursday the 6th of December at Scotstoun.  The course was the usual Short Two.  A good turnout and some excellent performances.  Well done.

West District Cross Country Championships

The Championships are being held at Irvine Royal Academy on Saturday the 8th of December.

A minibus will be leaving the car park at Scotstoun Stadium at 10am on Saturday morning.

Donald Wilson will be the driver, if you intend to travel, contact Gordon or Charlie Murray.

The Juniors are holding the first of their winter Road Race series from Scotstoun on Thursday the 6th of December.

The route is the traditional 2 mile Road Race.  All athletes from the Under 13 age group upwards are invited to attend.  Please wear light coloured clothing.

We will need parents to assist with stewarding duties on the night.  If you are available, can you make yourself known to Gordon or Hugh Stevenson at the trackside.

The first meeting of the Indoor League was held on Sunday the 2nd of December at the Kelvin Hall.

Our U13 Boys were the most successful on the day and finished with the 'A' team in 1st place with 85 points ahead of the 'B' team in 2nd place with 80 points out of 18 Clubs.

The U15 Boys 'A' team and the U17 mens 'B' team both finished in 2nd place on the day with 95 and 86 points respectively.

The U20 Mens 'B' team finished in 3rd place with 79 points, the U15 Girls 'A' team finished in 2nd place with 95.5 points, the U17 womens 'A' team finished in 2nd place with 87.5 points and the U20 womens 'B' team finished in 3rd place with 92 points.

With a further 3 teams just outside of the qualifying positions for the final, we can look forward to the next round with some confidence.

I'll add a link to the results when they are available.

The annual Crawford Shield 3 mile Road Race was held on Thursday 29th of November 2007 at Scotstoun.  The finishing positions were as follows:

Well done to everyone who helped with the bag packing at Braehead on Saturday the 24th of November.  It was a great turnout of athletes, coaches, parents and supporters (over 70). 

The final total of cash donations is in excess of £1,700.

All of the adults present were very proud of the way our younger athletes conducted themselves and the number of compliments received from customers was heartening.

Your efforts made it another great day for the Club.  Well done.

VP-Glasgow were well represented at the Harriers, Open Cross Country on Sunday 11th of November.

Hollie Young was 2nd in the U15 race and completed the 3,260m course in a time of 19:31, ahead of her team-mate Michaela Stephen who was 3rd in a time of 20:11.

Rhian Dawes was 2nd in the U17 race with a time of 19:44.

Max Aitchison was 1st in the U13 Boys race with a time of 11:05 ahead of Lewis Boyle who was just outside of the medals when finishing 4th with a time of 11:56.

The full results are available at this link.

The Masters Cross Country Championships were held at Stormont Estate, Belfast on Saturday 17th of November.

Susan Finch was 6th in the F45 category.   Susan completed the 6k course in a time of 25:07 and won a Bronze medal in the team competition.

Rab Daly was 16th to finish among the M65 category and was rewarded with a team silver medal.  Rab's time round the 6k course was 29:53.

Congratulations to both.  The full results are available at this link.

Dunbartonshire Cross Country

VP-Glasgow's athletes competing at the Dunbartonshire Cross Country Championships at Hermitage Academy, Campbell Drive, Colgrain, Helensburgh on Saturday 24th of November should meet at Scotstoun Stadium at 0945 hrs.

The minibus will drop you in time for the first event and return to pick you up at 1400 hrs.

VP-Glasgow's AGM and Awards presentation will take place on Monday the 12th of November at 7.30pm within the Hillhead Sports Club, Hughenden.

Medals will be awarded to athletes who finished in the first three overall places in each age group at the Club Championships at Linwood and special awards will be made to the following:

David Martin, Sandra Branney, Chris Bennett, Gregor Innes, Hollie Young, Andrew McFarlane, Calum Innes, Martin Hayes, Max Aitchison, Jill Knowles, Nicola Hood, Beth Potter, Sarah Gray, Iona Wilson, Emma Ferrie, Rhian Dawes, Suzanne Begg, Augusta Carman, Clair Cameron, Kenny Gray, and Katie Riches.

All members are invited to attend.

UK Cross-Challenge

This weekend saw the start of the UK Cross-Challenge Series, with the first outing in Gateshead. A fast course with some very “challenging” hills. The Club had several representatives competing in various age groups.

Max Aitchison did himself proud in coming in 3rd in the U13 Boys 3K race in a time of 11:20.

Michaela Stephen, who is relatively new to the distance, finished the U15 Girls 4K race in 14th place in a time of 16:07.

Nicola Hood finished 13th in the Junior Womens 4.5K race in a time of 17:19 behind several UK Junior Internationals.

Josephine Moultrie was 18th in the U17 4.5K race in a time of 19:28.

Next outing is Liverpool on the 24th November!!

Lasswade AC - Cross Country

VP-Glasgow had two winners at the 26th annual Lasswade Cross Country race at Gore Glen, Gorebridge, Midlothian on Sunday 4th of November.

Max Aitchison was 1st among the U13 boys with a time of 12:21 for the 2 mile course.

Rhian Dawes was also a winner, coming 1st in the U17 ladies race with a time of 19:38 for the 3 mile course.

Well done to both Max and Rhian.

Because of the closure of the Kelvin Hall, the U11's, U13's, U15's and U17's training has been moved to Scotstoun Stadium (Pavilion) until further notice.  Please make sure that you or your children come suitably dressed for inclement weather.

The Kelvin Hall will be closed on the following dates:

2nd November, 3rd November, 4th November, 5th November, 6th November, 7th November, 8th November, 9th November, 10th November, 11th November and 12th November.

It will then be closed on the 13th November from 9am till 6pm and on the 14th November from 6pm till 10pm.

It will then be open for 5 days before closing on 19th November, 20th November, 21st November, 22nd November, 23rd November, 24th November, 25th November and the 26th of November.

We will update you with the December closures as soon as we have them.

A letter of complaint has been sent to Bridget McConnell at Culture and Sport, Glasgow in relation to these closures.

VP-Glasgow have been invited to take part in a Bag Packing afternoon at Sainsbury's store at Braehead on Saturday the 24th of November.

The purpose of this fundraising is to purchase a stock of a new style tracksuit and training tops which we can sell to our members, hopefully at a generous discount.

We are looking for as many volunteers as possible. The bag packers must be at least 11 years of age on that date. We also need some parents/coaches to come along and help with the supervision (no age restriction).

We will be allowed into the store from 1200 hrs till 1800 hrs. Our packers must wear their Club colours, which would be either an old Club tracksuit top or the Club running vest over a T shirt.

We would ask any of our older members who have grown out of their old tracksuit top and are finished with it, to return it to me and we can arrange for someone to wear it on the day.

We would like as many of the U20, U17 and U15 athletes as possible to make themselves available for the full 6 hours if possible (with breaks).

We would like to break the participation of the U13 athletes down to a maximum of 3 hours starting at either 1200 hrs or 1500 hrs.

We expect the afternoon concerned to be hard work but also very enjoyable, if you are available, please give your name to Gordon. The more bag packers we have in the store, the more money the Club will make.

Two years ago we raised £1400 and this year we would like to exceed that total. A minibus has been booked and we will be able to transport our bag packers between Scotstoun and Braehead.

Gordon Innes

Emtelle Jedburgh Half Marathon

Jill Knowles was 2nd in the Jedburgh Half Marathon on Sunday the 28th of October.  Her finishing time was 1:22:34.

Of more importance though, she won the Scottish Road Race Grand Prix and the £1000 first prize.

With 40 points on offer for the first placed scottishathletics member - and with the best of six races to count - Jill scorched through the top three into pole position to steal victory.

Congratulations Jill.

National Cross Country Relays

The Relays were once again held on Saturday 27th of October at Cumbernauld High School.  VP-Glasgow narrowly missed out on the medals with the Junior Girls finishing in 4th place out of 54 teams and the Junior Boys finishing in 7th place out of 66 teams.

The Junior Girls Team of Iona Wilson (12:11), Hollie Young (9:57) and Beth Potter (9:23) finished in a combined time of 31:31.

The Junior Boys Team of Max Aitchison (9:34), Hugh Mackenzie (10:00) and Max Ralston (8:50) finished in a combined time of 28:24.

The Junior Boys B Team of Findlay Parker (10:45), Paul MacFarlane (10:31) and Stuart Ross (9:58) finished in 38th place with a combined time of 31:14.

The Junior Boys C Team of Fraser Barbour (10:38), Lewis Wilson (10:48) and Michael Gray (10:03) finished in 43rd place with a time of 31:29.

VP-Glasgow's Senior Ladies Team of Kirsty Baird (18:38), Lindsay MacNeill (16:01) and Donna Findlayson (18:34) finished in 14th place with a combined time of 53:33 from a field of 52 teams.  Lindsay MacNeill had the 4th fastest time of the day.

The Senior Mens Team of Derek Watson Snr (15:40), Derek Gibb (15:23), Gerry Craig (15:53) and Kenny McVey finished in 49th place with a combined time of 1:05:18.

The full results are available at this link.

Advanced Core Conditioning

The following core stability class is starting this Sunday 28th Oct. It is open to people of all standards and ages who are involved in athletics and want to improve their core strength and flexibility. It is a great recovery session that fits in well after a hard Saturday or Sunday morning session.

The leader is Sarah Hood, who graduated in Sports Science from Edinburgh University and is also a qualified fitness instructor. She is an 800/1500m runner herself so the session will be athletics based.  Sarah is a member of Edinburgh A.C.