Training at Balerno High School (Mondays and Wednesdays) continues up to the end of term....

... and resumes the first week back at school in August. If there is demand some of the coaches MIGHT run a couple of evenings during the summer holidays.

Training at Saughton on Thursdays (6.30 – 7.30) will continue throughout the summer holidays, and anyone can come along.

(Athletes with other coaches will have their own arrangements.)

Included in this Herald is information about the Open Graded meetings being held at Grangemouth and Livingston on some Wednesday nights during the summer. Open graded meetings are open to all on an individual basis (ie it is not team based with restrictions on the number of places per event).

This is YOUR chance to do the event or events YOU want to do!

As these are being held on nights when our coaches are already occupied, it is very much the responsibility of members and parents to organise attendance.

A few of our older members have already been along and been rewarded with some personal bests.

We're pleased to welcome back Jenny Robertson to active duty after a couple of years off whilst at college. Jenny was a top-quality junior sprinter and is now helping out at coaching on Wednesday evenings.

After several years of active duty as Coach, Committee Member, Team Manager and Athlete, Christina Graham will be retiring from active duty at the end of this season. Christina started, like most of us, when her children first joined the club as U11's, and has been a key part of our organisation for several years. In order to keep Wednesday (and Monday) night coaching going strong we really do need a fresh infusion of new parents to come on board, so the plea is to all our younger members to ask your parents to spend a bit of time helping out. If you would like to take the first steps in getting a coaching qualification, the club will pay the course fees. A series of courses for new coaches will be run by Scottish Athletics in the autumn.

Christina's departure also means we will have a vacancy for a team manager for the Forth Valley League next season, so now (at the club AGM) is the time to volunteer.

A reminder to everyone that Medals will be awarded for each League based on the points scored over all the meetings (taking into account any changes in the scoring system):

This season has been a bit different with so many of the competitions finishing before the school holidays, but a reminder to all juniors (U15, U13 U11) that there will be one Forth Valley League meeting in the holidays on Saturday August 2nd. Performances in this League are well ahead of last year, so a commemorative medal for all who take part in this league is well within your grasp.

A handful of members went along to the Edinburgh clubs meeting held at Meadowbank during the Easter holidays.

Last year we found a few middle distance runners, but lost most of our sprinters. In the first match of the Men's League this year we had another two middle distance runners making their debut for us. Shaun Desport, although still an U17 has reached the required performance standard and is eligible to run the 800m against seniors. And what a good run it was too, with Shaun pulling away from the field in the home straight to win in the fast time of 2m 01.8 sec in fairly blustery conditions. Also making his debut for us was Jim Buick, who trains alongside us at Saughton on Thursday nights. We had a second victory in a middle distance race (and when was the last time that happened?!) when Tony Westbury showed the value of good pacing and "barrier" technique in the steeplechase as he gradually roped in a field who had all set off fairly quickly to win in 11m 23.8s. There are meant to be seven clubs in the league (so points scoring has reverted to that used for eight club leagues compared to the scoring system used last year), however Ross County (former Black Isle) failed to appear.

Provisional Result: 1 Victoria Park 324; 2 Whitemoss 322; 3 Giffnock North 318; 4 Lasswade 256; 5 Harmeny 128; 6 Dunfermline & W. Fife 90; (7 Ross County – No show)

Final Result: 1. Dunbar 383.5 ; 2. Linlithgow 340.5 ; 3. Falkirk 324 ; 4. Dunfermline & W.F. 285.5 ; 5. Harmeny 273 ; 6. Musselburgh 185.5 ; 7. E.W.M. 185.