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.

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HIPPO round 1 - 2 weeks to go and counting! Entries close 1st April

Get the dust off those spikes and throwing shoes - the first round of HIPPO will be hitting the track in just 2 weeks! As the track season excitement starts to mount, coaches and athletes will be gearing up to a busy calendar ahead. The very first event on the track in Inverness, the Highland Athletics OGM with HIPPO will be kicking off the summer season in style!

April the 11th sees the launch of HIPPO 2009 with Inverness hosting. The following weekend will see the next phase of round 1 as Orkney and Shetland host their open graded competitions on the Saturday and Sunday respectively and Stornoway will complete round 1 on the 25th April.

Following the success of the pre-entry system employed last year, all Inverness matches will have a strict pre-entry. This allows the timetable to be constructed to meet the demands of the number of entrants per event and ensures the day of competition runs as smooth as possible. An entry form pack can be downloaded from HERE.

For the Inverness match - entries close on Wednesday 1st April
NO entries accepted on the day (except relays)

HIPPO Series
Diary Dates 2010 Round 1 Inverness 17 April Orkney 25 April Shetland 25 April Stornoway 25 April ~~~~~ Round 2 Inverness 8 May (inc. HIG Champs) Orkney 27 June Shetland Stornoway ~~~~~ Grand Final & Awards Night Inverness 18 Sept	389 athletes; 1060 performances = HIPPO Round 1! Results: HIPPO & HIPPOlympian The results are in from all 4 venues and with 389 athletes competing at HIPPO it has been a tremendous first round for 2009! Over one thousand performances were recorded and a huge thank you has to go to all our officials and helpers who are undoubtedly our stalwarts. Leading the charge at the front of the bloat in the overall team competition is Inverness Harriers with 35,312 points with Orkney AC chasing then with 33,304 points. Last years overall winner, Shetland AC are sitting in 3rd place on 31,780. Orkney AC reversed the top two positions in the Female Team challenge leading with 26,540 points to 25,201 points for Inverness Harriers. With Shetland only 650 points behind Inverness Harriers. For the Male Team award, Inverness sit in first place with 16,388pts with Shetland securing second spot on 14,415 and third is Orkney on 13,272 points. The top Senior points scoring female athlete was Mags MacRae from Orkney scoring 935 points running the 400m in 58.1s. It was a male sprinter who took the top scoring spot with a fine performance over the 100m in a time of 11.13s scoring 884 points. In the U17 age group Shetland scored 16,848 points producing a convincing winning margin of 3456 points over Inverness Harriers with Orkney chasing on 11,540 points. 842 points was the leading U17 girls score that Paula Gass of Inverness Harriers set by throwing 34.00m in the Javelin. While the versatile U17 athlete Rory MacLure ran an impressive 23.69s for 727 points in the 200m. Stornoway RAC shone in the U15 age group scoring 15,004 points to take the lead by over 2287 points, over Inverness Harriers on 12,717 points with North Uist chasing at their heels on 12,095 points - only 622 points adrift. Two Stornoway 100m sprinters topped the boys and girls scoring, Jodie MacKay scored 816 points with 13.25s and Alasdair Summers ran 11.62s for 753 points. With only 158 points separating the top two clubs in the U13 age group championship, Orkney AC came out on top with Stornoway RAC pushing all the way. Despite Stornoway winning both the boys and girls U13 match they could not match the depth of higher scoring performances produced by the Orkney athletes which gave Orkney the edge. Top of the U13 scorers were Jenny MacTaggart of Stornoway who raised 711 points running 13.99s in the 100m and Connel MacDonald scored 439 points throwing an impressive 8.60m in the Shot. The first round of the HIPPOlympian Challenge saw 85 athletes participate and it was Shetland AC who come out on top followed by North Uist AC who are ahead of Orkney AC. In the boys challenge, Alasdair Rigby of Stornoway RAC leads with 383 points from Conor Cormack of Caithness AAC on 316 points and Struan Tweedie of Inverness Harriers close behind on 307 points. In the girls championship Shetlander Paige Buggy leads the way on 810 points closely chased by Inverness Harrier Mary Flockhart on 806 points and sitting in 3rd place Cara Steven of Shetland on 794 points. The top scoring U11 HIPPOlympians performers were Eilidh Cameron of North Uist AAC throwing 4.40m in the shot and Robbie Chalmers of Elgin AC who threw 16.92m in the javelin scoring 289 points.

HIPPO round 1 - Inverness - Fantastic Season Opener! 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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HIPPO round 1 - 2 weeks to go and counting! Entries close 1st April Get the dust off those spikes and throwing shoes - the first round of HIPPO will be hitting the track in just 2 weeks! As the track season excitement starts to mount, coaches and athletes will be gearing up to a busy calendar ahead. The very first event on the track in Inverness, the Highland Athletics OGM with HIPPO will be kicking off the summer season in style! April the 11th sees the launch of HIPPO 2009 with Inverness hosting. The following weekend will see the next phase of round 1 as Orkney and Shetland host their open graded competitions on the Saturday and Sunday respectively and Stornoway will complete round 1 on the 25th April. Following the success of the pre-entry system employed last year, all Inverness matches will have a strict pre-entry. This allows the timetable to be constructed to meet the demands of the number of entrants per event and ensures the day of competition runs as smooth as possible. An entry form pack can be downloaded from HERE. For the Inverness match - entries close on Wednesday 1st April NO entries accepted on the day (except relays)

389 athletes; 1060 performances = HIPPO Round 1! Results: HIPPO & HIPPOlympian

HIPPO round 1 - Inverness - Fantastic Season Opener!

HIPPO round 1 - 2 weeks to go and counting! Entries close 1st April