Ally Strange made the long journey from his Loughborough  base to record a new PB ,Club record and Scottish Native Record at the Scottish Closed indoor Championships .Ally , coached by Alan Richardson, the England Athletics National Mentor for Pole Vault and Jumps, progressed to 5.21m but failed to clear the height which would, on the exact anniversary of the current national best, have matched Graham Eggleton’s 27-year-old outdoor record and exceeded the 5.20m nomination standard for the 2010 Commonwealth Games - although the primary consideration for selection is an outdoor performance with indoor marks only used as supplementary evidence to support a case for nomination.

“I really wanted it (5.21m),” said Strange, “but I think I got a bit too excited, I just wasn’t connecting at that height, which I did do at 5.16m.”

“I can’t complain; I’ve just finished my exams. I’ve got the Inter City Games tomorrow (McCain City Challenge) then the UK Championships next weekend.”

It was a successful day for the club at the Championships with a number of athletes picking up medals over a number of events. Iain MacDonald finished 3rd in the 60m ( 7.38sec) and 4th in the 60m H( 8.60 secs).John Ruddy was very unlucky not to win the 200m just being dipped on the line to record 22.69secs follow his run in the 60m ( 7.38 secs).New member Iain Paget finished 4th in the TJ (12.82m) and 9th in the LJ ( 5.94 ).Another 4th placer was Lee Wilson  800m ( 2.00.97) and Callum Sharp kept his club mate company in the Pole Vault ( 4.11)

Supporting the Championships was the young athletes 4x200m National championships.Shettleston had a number of teams covering the age groups and picked up bronze in the U/15  girls event ( L.Penrice,N.McCann,L.Thompson ,B.Watt). The U/13 boys finished 4th but were later disqualified and the U/17 girls broke the club record when finishing 5th in the final .

Earlier in the day Pollok Park was the venue for the weekly Park Run (5km). Jethro Lennox (1^st) led home a quintet of Shettleston athletes, followed by Ken.McCoy (5^th), Bill.Breckenridge (16^th  & PB by 30secs!), Steve Winters (20^th) and Greg Pawelczyk (37^th)

 Meanwhile at Stirling the British University Cross Country Cross Country Championships took place, and Shettleston athletes were Thomas Fay (54^th), Martin Graham (55^th), Mike Deason (79^th) and Matthew Turner (82^nd).  And in the Scottish Masters Cross Country Championships at Forres, Ian Johnston  was 12^th and John Oates 43^rd.

 Earlier this week our young athletes shone when competing for their schools at Scottish Schools Indoor Championships at the Kelvin Hall. Three of them have been selected to compete for the Scottish Schools team in the Celtic International in Cardiff later this month: Ahmed Hassan and Mhairi Hendry ( 800m ) and Stephen Gracie ( Relay ), gaining their first international selection . Congratulations to them all. Medal winners at the championships included Ahmed Hassan ( U/16 800m -Gold ),Stephen Gracie (O/16 200m -Bronze),Mhairi Hendry (U/16 800m-Silver ),Myrtle Breckenridge ( U/16 800m-Bronze) and Shannon McLellan ( O/16 800m- Bronze ).In the B final of the U/16 Laura Penrice just missed out in victory.

Callum Divers was unlucky not to claim bronze in the 400m but had the joy of record a PB ( 55.00)  when finishing  4th .The sprint group are reaping the benifit of the coaching of Jim Docherty and Stephen Walker when a number of them recorded PB'S in the 60m event -A.Sinclair ( 8.48 ), B.Watt (8.51 ) ,L.Thomson (8.55 ) and N.McCann ( 8.59 )

It was good to see a number of field event athletes competing -Nicky Stone,David Taylor and Nicola Mackay in the Shot events and in the jumps Paddy O'Donnell, David Taylor, Lisa Thompson and Brogan Watt.