Don’t forget to re-join Scottish this week and claim the Round The Bays Special. Join and you get $20 off your new season of Scottish full adult membership (down from $185 to $165). Just email us at membership@scottishathletics.org.nz and pay Wellington Scottish Athletics 38-9005-0501833-00. Put your name and “RTB JOIN” in the reference. If you want a singlet too, add $39. This will be the biggest discount we offer this year so don’t miss out by waiting.

Also: if you, as an existing member, sign up an adult friend who is new to the club or has not been a member for the last five years, we will give both you and your friend $15 off your membership fees. If you sign up two friends who are new to the club you get two lots of $15 off your membership fee. And so on.

Options this week

Results

Oceania Athletics Association Merit Award

Congratulations to our club Patron Alan Stevens on being the recipient of an Oceania Athletics Association Merit Award. 

The award is richly deserved recognition of decades of volunteer work by Alan in the Oceanian region, especially as an advocate at a global level for cross-country and road running in NZ. In 1991, Alan was elected as an Oceania Area Representative, and a part of the IAAF Cross Country and Road Committee — 16 years continuous to 2007. From 1970 to 1996, Alan was a part of the NZAAA Management Committee and Athletics NZ Board — 26 years in total. In 1977-1988, Alan was convenor for Cross Country and Road Committee. In 1995 Alan received the IAAF Veteran Pin at World Congress, Goteborg, Sweden.

Wellington Round the Bays

There was a sea of yellow at Round the Bays again this year – too many results for me to publish, sorry! I started to go through the results and ran out of time. In fact, the stream of yellow singlets at the front of the half marathon intimidated our recruiting efforts at Kilbirnie Park – tone it down a bit next year boys!

I did note that it was a big day for the letter B. The Barwicks both recorded big personal bests (1.14.03 for Paul, and 38;27 for Lindsay. Nicholas Bagnall ran a big half marathon PB dipping under 1:25, and not far behind Brad and Bill had a close battle with Bill Wong picking up a sub 90 minute PB in 1:28.32. And Emma Bassett ran a very impressive 1:34.41. Many other great results throughout the other letters too, including 8 of the 18 podium spots and lots of new people coming along to find out more about the club and/or join us for the new season.

Results

Photos

Capital Classic

3000m: Hirotaka Tanimoto 8:54.52 (NZ PB), Grant McLean 9:28.23. 1-mile walk: Sean Lake 8:32.34 (3rd), Ian Morton 10:11.24, Daphne Jones 11:18.85. 400m: Amy Walker 59.86. 1500m: Hamish Carson 3:42.40 (2nd), Niam Macdonald 4:07.33.

Results

Coming up

Waterfront 5km Series, Tuesdays

The Wellington Scottish Waterfront 5km continues until 30 March 2021. Please offer to help with registration and marshalling once in a while.

Scottish Annual General Meeting, 10 March, Anderson Park Cricket Club

Our Club Annual General Meeting takes place on Wednesday 10 March at the cricket club rooms in the Botanic Gardens. It’s your chance to hear how the club is doing, elect a new committee for the year and tell that committee what you want the club to do. We will gather beforehand at 5.30pm for a friendly pack run, leaving from the cricket clubrooms. The clubrooms have showers and changing rooms.

McVilly Shield Relay, 13 March, Karori Park

The McVilly Shield is the first club event for the season and a great way to get to know other people in the club. This relay has teams of three people each. Everyone can take part, runners, walkers, J Team, seniors, masters and friends of the club. Just turn up and we will find you a team. You can either race it or use it as an opportunity to do some training. 

Each team must do ten laps of Karori Park. No individual team member can do more than four laps. But you can do the laps in any order you like. The race is randomly handicapped after the teams start.

If anyone is planning to come along but isn’t able to run let us know as we’re looking for 3-4 volunteers to help with timekeeping, etc.

See this article for more information. 

Centennial Cup, 20 March, Island Bay

This is a flat 5km club race along south coast waterfront starting at Island Bay. This is normally our first club race of each season. It is the traditional opening race of the season where members will compete for the Centennial Cup. It is a sealed handicap event where our handicapper has estimated your time over 5km to determine your handicap. Everyone starts together and the finishing times are adjusted by your handicap to determine your net time and the overall winner of the Cup. 

We normally meet beforehand at 1:30pm at St Hilda’s Church, 311 The Parade, to store gear. The race starts at 2pm. There is also a J Team race for the kids and race walk for the walkers. Then we return afterwards for an afternoon tea.

Last year’s defending Centennial Cup champion is Jasmine Smith.

Wellington 5000m Champs, 27 March

The Wellington 5000m champs will take place on Saturday 27 March late in the afternoon. There will be different races to accommodate runners of all different speeds and goals. New members to the club will be welcome to take part.

Paul Hewitson from WHAC is leading the organisation, and he is looking for a few more helpers. Please let me know if you an assist and I will pass on your offer. Entries will be open later this week. Entry will be $5, which will contribute towards prizes for first place finishers. There will be a BBQ and drinks for sale on the day. This year will include a 70+ age grade category. Entrants must bring someone to count laps for them -one lap counter can count two runners. There will be a at least two races, based on predicted times. Slower runners will start at 4:30 pm. There will be a third event if there are over 30 in each field.

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