Fife AC's Annual Report

Results, news, views and updates...it's all here!
User avatar
Fife AC Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 960
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 6:18 pm

Fife AC's Annual Report

Unread post by Fife AC Admin »

Fife AC Annual Report 2019

The last 12 months have again been very successful for Fife AC. As I suggested last year, there are many ways to measure success.

• our membership has grown again, to around 410.
• in the last 12 months, 11 coaches have either become newly qualified or have upgraded their qualifications. This is a fantastic achievement for the Club, and the Board is grateful to all our coaches for the time and energy they put into Fife AC. The Club couldn’t operate without them.
• over the winter the Club put on several workshops - two on CPR, one on long term athlete development, and one on marathon training. Over 70 club members attended the workshops.
• The three-year Robertson Trust grant came to an end but Fife AC and Scottish Athletics agreed to retain funding for our Club Together Officer.
• Our media team expanded, with Annabel Simpson taking on the Twitter account and Jen Cruikshanks the Instagram account. We are grateful to them, and to Jenny Selman and Frani Horsburgh for their on-going publicising of our activities.
• We continue to work with Fife Disability Sport and were awarded Inclusive Club of the Year 2019 at their Awards Night
• The Kirkcaldy Wizards group continues to grow, with an extraordinary 86 men and 165 women having joined the group – from zero two years ago. 100 took part in a Couch to 5k and 36 graduated by running the Kirkcaldy Parkrun. 66 took part in a 5k to 10k and 10 graduated by running the Glenrothes 10k. In addition to all these new runners, many of whom have joined the Club, we are also delighted to welcome so many new coaches to this group.
• Fife AC has put on over 25 races over the year, including the Scottish Mid-Trail Championships. It wouldn’t be possible to stage so many events without the support of such a huge number of volunteers in many different ways. At last year’s AGM, we made a plea for more people to help and we are very grateful to everyone who answered this call. The new volunteer@ email has been a useful way for people to contact race organisers. We estimate that over 100 club members and parents have helped at at least one of our events. Requiring anyone who would like to enter the ballot for one of our places of the London marathon to have volunteered at at least two events has also helped a lot. However we can never have enough race helpers so if you’ve not had time to help so far, please feel free to volunteer at a future event.
• In the accounting period in the Club’s audited accounts, we earned nearly £2.5K from Gift Aid. We are grateful to John Keenlyside for administering the scheme. This money helps the Club to, for example, support our athletes through paying for race entries, support some of our athletes to take part in elite level races in England, and pay for coach education courses.

As an athletics club, it goes without saying that the primary measure of our success comes through races and related achievements. As ever there is a summary of such successes in the Board’s Minutes from each meeting and we publish many results on our various forms of media. The total list is extremely long so I’m going to summarise, focusing in the main on championship performances. Apologies to the people whose results aren't included here but it would simply take too long to list them all but we do have a fuller list if anyone would like to see it.

Derek Rae won Scottish Athletics Para-athlete of the Year

British and Irish Masters XC International in Swansea
Margaret Martin and Innes Bracegirdle won team bronze as part of the Scottish V60 Team

Owen Miller became part of the British Athletics World Class Programme

European XC Championships Trial
Fife AC Senior Women’s Team of Stephanie Pennycook, Helen Sharp, Jennifer Spence and Jennifer Cruickshanks won team gold and qualified to represent the UK at the European Clubs XC Championships

European Clubs XC Championships, Portugal
Fife AC Senior Women’s team of Jennifer Spence, Jennifer Cruickshanks, Halina Rees, Jenny Selman, Helen Sharp and Megan Crawford placed 11th in Europe.

East District XC Championship
• Under 13 Girls Isla Thoms was 1st, and with Ruby Russell and Katie Sandilands won team silver
• Under 15 Girls Anna Hedley was 1st and Anna Dalglish 3rd, and with Isla Hedley won team gold
• Under 17 Men Iain and Gavin McWhinnie and Ben Sandilands won team bronze
• Under 20 Men Tristan Rees, Robert Sparks and Craig Morris won team bronze
• Senior Women Annabel Simpson 3rd, and with Helen Sharpe and Jennifer Spence won team gold

Great Stirling XC
• Under 13 Girls Isla Thoms helped East win team gold
• Under 15 Girls Anna Hedley was 1st, and with Anna Dalglish and Isla Hedley helped East to win team silver
• Under 17 Men Ben Sandilands helped East win team silver

Celtic XC Antrim
Anna Hedley won the Under 17 Women race

East District XC League overall results
• Under 13 Girls Team finished 2nd overall
• Under 15 Girls / Under 17 Women Team finished 2nd overall
• Under 17 Men Team finished 2nd overall
• Senior Women Team finished 1st overall

Scottish Athletics Under 17 Indoor Championships
Layla Zuill won bronze medal in 200m

Scottish Athletics Masters XC Championships
Innes Bracegirdle won V60 silver, Margaret Martin won V60 bronze, Margaret Cavanagh won V70 silver, and Fife AC Women won team bronze

Scottish National XC Championships
• Fife AC’s Senior Women’s team Megan Crawford, Helen Sharpe, Sophie Mullins, Jennifer Cruickshanks and Jennifer Spence won team gold for the first time in the Club’s history
• Kevin Wood won Senior Men individual silver
• Isla Thoms won U13individual silver, and Isla Thoms, Ruby Russell, Katie Sandilands and Freya Hedley won team silver
• Anna Hedley won U15 individual gold, and Anna Hedley, Isla Hedley, Anna Dalglish and Hayley Brown won team silver.

Scottish Schools Indoor Championships
• Nana Afrifa won bronze in the Over 16 Boys Triple Jump
• Layla Zuill won silver in the Under 16 girls 200m

Scottish Athletics 4 x 200m Indoor Relay Championships
Layla Zuill, Aislynn Crichton, Eve Rennie and Ama Afrifa won U17 silver

British Athletics Cross Challenge
• Isla Thoms finished 3rd U13 overall and Anna Hedley finished 1st U15 overall, after some excellent results in the individual races throughout the series.
• Anna Hedley also helped the East of Scotland U15 girls win team bronze in the Inter Counties XC Championships.

Scottish Athletics Young Athletes Road Race
• Isla Thoms was 2nd U13, and Isla Thoms, Ruby Russell and Katie Sandilands won team silver
• Anna Hedley was 1st U15 girl, and Anna Hedley, Anna Dalglish and Isla Hedley won team silver

SIAB International XC
• Isla Hedley won girls team silver
• Anna Hedley won individual and team silver
• Struan Bennett won team silver
• Ben Sandilands won team bronze

British and Scottish 100K championships
Sophie Mullins finished first and Morgan Windram-Geddes second, and they helped Scotland win team gold

Scottish 50K Championships
Angela Howe won gold

Scottish Athletics 4 Stage Road Relays
Hilary Ritchie, Keren Macpherson and Elizabeth Bloomfield won V silver

Kirkcaldy and Central Fife Sports Council Awards
• Derek Rae won both the Disability Award & the Special Achievement Award
• Owen Miller was runner up in both the Disability Award & the Special Achievement Award
East Fife Sports Council Awards
• Sam Fernando won the Athlete with a Disability category
• Anna Hedley was runner up in the Junior category
• Sam Fernando was runner up in the Youth category
• Innes Bracegirdle was runner up in the Masters category
• Sam Fernando and Anna Hedley were runners up in the Achiever of the Year category
• Dave Francis was runner up in the Coach of the Year category
• Senior Women were runners up in the Team of the Year category

Ron Morrison was awarded UKA Endurance Official 2019

Adam Scott won gold in the 800m at the Scottish Universities & Colleges Athletics Championships, and bronze in Irish Universities v Scottish Universities Championships 800m

Anna Hedley won U15 individual bronze and was part of the gold medal team running for Scotland at the London Mini Marathon

Derek Rae won the silver medal at the Para World Championships, run in conjunction with the London Marathon. Derek’s medal will be included in the Team GB total at the forthcoming Para World Championships in Dubai.

Morgan Windram-Geddes won silver at Scottish Athletics Trail Championships

Innes Bracegirdle won V60 gold at the Scottish 5k Championships

East District T&F Championships
• Peter Scott won gold in the U17 400m
• Ben Sandilands won gold in the U17 800m
• Layla Zuill won bronze in the U17 100m
• Aiden O’Hara won bronze in the U17 100m
• Holly Ovens won bronze in the U13 800m
• Rachel McNab won gold in the U15 shot putt
• Emily Stratton won bronze in the U17 high jump

In the Scottish Athletics National U17 3,000m Championships Anna Hedley won gold

Scottish Athletics Hill Race Championships
• Isla Hedley won U15 gold
• Struan Bennett won u17 bronze
• Anna Hedley won U17 gold


Scottish Schools Track and Field Championships
• Ben Sandilands won gold in Group B 800m
• Peter Scott won silver in Group B 400m
• Isla Thoms won silver in Group D 1500m
• Layla Zuill won bronze in Group B 200m
• Anna Dalglish won bronze in Group B 800m steeplechase

At the British Inter Counties Hill Championships Anna Hedley won individual gold and with Libby Smith won team bronze while representing Scotland Central

At the SIAB International, competing for Scotland
• Ben Sandilands won bronze in 800m
• Layla Zuill won bronze in 4x100 relay
• Peter Scott and Anna Dalglish were also selected for the team

At the English Road Race Championships, Annabel Simpson won silver and Allan Gibson V60 gold

Scottish National Senior T&F Championships
• Annabel Simpson won gold in the 5,000m
• Nony Mordi won silver in triple jump
• Jenny Selman won silver in the 1500m

Scottish National Age Groups T&F Championships
• Isla Thoms won bronze U15 1500m
• Anna Hedley won silver U17 steeplechase and U17 1500m
• Ben Sandilands won bronze U17 800m

Scottish Hill Running Championships
• Heather Anderson, Hilary Ritchie and Jocelyn Scott won team silver
• Heather Anderson won V40 gold
• Hilary Ritchie won V50 silver
• Jocelyn Scott won V60 gold
• Mark Harris won V50 silver

At the UK National Senior T&F Championships Jenny Selman finished 5th and Steph Pennycook 12th in the 1500m

Anna Hedley won U17 gold in the 3000m and silver in the 1500m at the England Athletics U17 Championships

Scottish Mid Trail Running Championships
• Struan Bennet won U15 gold
• Jennifer Spence, Jennifer Cruickshanks, Halina Rees and Ailsa Cruickshanks won team silver
• Ryan Lafferty, Sam Fernando, Rory Scott and James Hall won team bronze

17 Fife AC Under 17 and Under 20 athletes competed as part of Team Kingdom in this year’s Northern Premier League Youth Development League and helped the team qualify for the UK National Final in Manchester where they finished 5th team in the UK.

At the Scottish 10k Championships, Nanette Heaney, Innes Bracegirdle and Wilma Gillespie won V60 team gold

Owen Miller was selected to compete for Team GB in the forthcoming World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai

Cameron Adam won silver in both the 100m and 200m in the British T37 Championships

Junior Home International Hill Race Championships
• Anna Hedley won individual U17 silver and team gold
• Struan Bennet won U17 team silver

Scottish Half Marathon Championships
• Annabel Simpson won silver
• Kevin Wood won bronze
• Kevin Wood, Derek Rae and Lewis Rodgers won team silver

Ron Morrison became the new President of Scottish Athletics

East District XC Relays
• Katie Sandilands, Isla Thoms and Anna Hedley won junior team gold
• Jenny Selman, Laura Gibson and Annabel Simpson won senior team gold
• Michaela McLean, Innes Bracegirdle and Mary Western won veteran team silver
• Ryan Lafferty, Tristan Rees, Derek Rae and Kevin Wood won senior team bronze

INAS Global Games in Brisbane
Sam Fernando, competing for Team GB, won silver in the 3000m steeplechase and finished 4th in the 5,000m and 7th in 10,000m

Scottish Athletics National XC Relays
• Katie Sandilands, Isla Thomas and Anna Hedley won junior women team gold
• Archie Suttie, Struan Bennet and Ben Sandilands won junior men team silver
• Elise Methven, Michaela McLean and Angela Howe won V40 women team bronze
• Margaret Martin, Mary Western and Nanette Heaney won V50 team bronze


Scottish Hill Runners Championships 2019
• Heather Anderson won senior women silver and V40 gold
• Hilary Ritchie won V50 silver
• Jocelyn Scott won V60 gold
• Eliza Mclauchlan won V60 bronze
• Liz Bloomfield, Heather Anderson and Anita Laidlaw won V40 team gold

At the Scottish Universities XC Championships, Kevin Wood won silver.

There can be few clubs in the country which can boast such a long and impressive list of successes, with so many different athletes winning medals and awards. Huge congratulations are in order to all our athletes, their coaches, their families and all our training groups. It is particularly pleasing to see both our track and field athletes and our senior men’s teams doing so well.

As I mentioned earlier, the number of coaches the Club has continues to grow. We are delighted that several of our coaches have now completed higher level qualifications which provide insurance cover at our various training groups. The Club remains committed to funding coach qualification courses and would like to encourage more people to qualify both at the initial level and more importantly at Level 2. We are also thrilled to welcome back Nony Mordi, the Scottish triple jump record holder and UK international, to the area. Nony has started a jumps training group in St Andrews and so for the first time in a very long time we have a specialist jumps group.

While the number of coaches we have continues to improve, we have very few qualified officials, either for T&F or for XC/Road. Competitions cannot happen without officials and so we’d be very keen to hear from anyone who’d like to qualify as an official.

At last year’s AGM, I explained that we intended to change how we organize our various races so that more people took responsibility for events and reduced the workload on the very small number who had previously organized events. This has been a significant success. The Club is grateful to
• Ken Morris for organising the Mid Week Series
• Gary Barker, Rebecca Reader and John McIntyre (Snr) for organizing the Kirkcaldy-based races
• Frank and Margaret McLaren and Ron Morrison led with the arrangements for the Devil’s Burden, Tour of Fife, Mid-Trail Championships, Giffordtown 5k and Cupar 5
• Roger Rees for Norman’s Law and Emily Hill Race
• Roger Rees and Dave Francis for the Scottish Athletics Junior Hill Running Championships
• Dave Francis, Kate Fernando and Graham Kirby for the Mini Tour
• Neil Miller for the Grand Prix
• Jez Tomlinson and Keren Macpherson for the Ceres 8
• Andy Wright, Louise Burt and Bill Fairmaner for the Sandy Slither
• Mark Buchan, Jimmy McIntyre and Frank McLaren for the Last Duel Trail Race
• Ron Morrison, Gary Barker and Frank McLaren for the Scottish Athletics Short Course Championships
• Ron Morrison, Frank McLaren, Louise Burt and Bill Fairmaner for the Scottish Athletics Mid-Trial Championships
We would still love to hear from anyone else who’d be willing to organise events. Training and support is on offer.

Dave Cowan has stepped down as Coaching Coordinator and the role has been taken on by Frani Horsburgh. As a consequence of changes at work, Elise Methven has indicated that she will need to step down as Welfare Officer. The Club is extremely grateful to Elise for all the hard work and dedication she has put into the role. We now need to find a replacement for this role so if you, or someone you know, would like to discuss this option, please let me know.

Finally, as a Club we need to continue to encourage our juniors to participate in races. After requests to provide more race opportunities for our juniors, the Kirkcaldy race organisers applied for permits for juniors, U13 and over, with age-appropriate distances, so they could take part in the race series. These extra permits generate a great deal of extra work for the race organisers, and yet over the summer season only two athletes took part, in one race each. The races were free to Fife AC U18s.

In addition, Fife AC organized the Scottish Athletics Mid Trail Championships on the Falkland Estate on 1st September. As the Club organizes the Championships, we added in taster races for U11 and U13 even though these aren’t championship races, again to provide more and local race opportunities. Participation at the event was again disappointing - Fife had two U11 boys, one U13 girl and one U15 boy – a total of 4 athletes, compared to, for example, 11 from Stornoway. The Stornoway team came on a two-overnight and two-ferry ride journey to take part yet only four local athletes ran.

Furthermore, the Club takes part in both the Forth Valley and RAM T&F Leagues, to provide race opportunities in T&F for our younger juniors. Participation is free to athletes and the Club pays the league fees. Over the several fixtures in each league, there were never enough junior athletes and therefore many events weren’t filled across the event programme. The Board would be grateful if all coaches and parents would encourage our juniors to take part in more races, and with hope they’ll then become accustomed to racing.

In conclusion, again we would like to congratulate all our athletes, coaches and training groups for our very many successes, and thanks all our many volunteers for all their time and energy over the last 12 months.
tom pairman
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Dec 13, 2012 4:46 pm

Re: Fife AC's Annual Report

Unread post by tom pairman »

A very well written and informative report !
Post Reply