Athletics: Falkirk Victoria Harriers members Victoria Anestik and Scott Stirling both strike national gold in Grangemouth

Firstly on Sunday, Victoria Anestik (U17) won the long jump with an impressive leap of 5.40m, before adding a javelin bronze with a throw of 32.72m.

The local club’s second gold medal triumph arrived when Scott Stirling won the men’s 5000m senior men’s race in 14:19.25, finishing over 12 seconds ahead of the silver medallist.

An eventful day of athletics also saw several Vics representatives just miss out on podium positions by coming fourth, including Abbi MacLeod, who ran 56.50secs in the senior women’s 400m, Hannah MacLeod, who finished the U17 girls 300m in 41.84secs, Selina Henderson, who leapt 5.30m in the senior women’s long jump, and Samuel Kane who reached 6.75m in the senior men’s long jump.

These sterling exploits by Falkirk Victoria Harriers athletes came hard on the heels of club youngsters enjoying a successful Youth Development League final meeting, also at Grangemouth, the previous weekend.

In addition to many gaining new personal bests, there were also a host of medals gained by the youngsters

In the U13 age group, Skye Robertson landed bronze for her 800m race in 2:31.06, Kirsty Moffat took long jump bronze in 4.05m, Thomas Mitchell claimed 800m silver in 2:24.27, it was 1200m silver for Josh Taylor in 3:56.98 and Callan Campbell won 150m bronze in 20.85secs and shot putt bronze with 6.77m.

The U13 girls 4x100m team of Emma Crawford, Kirsty Moffat, Skye Robertson and Aine McAtarsney landed bronzes for their combined time of 56.92secs.

And the U13 boys 4x100m quartet of Hamish Gillies, Kostas Jakubiak, Thomas Mitchell and Callan Campbell won golds for their combined efforts after finishing in 56.67secs.

In the U15 age categories, Aimee Calder took gold for the 200m in 26.04secs and silver in the 100m (12.64secs) and 300m (44.26secs).

Michelle Fasoro landed shot putt silver with 8.83m and also took silver in the discus with a throw of 17.80m.

Laura Taylor (12.55secs) earned bronze in the 75m hurdles, while the 4 x100m girls team of Laura Taylor, Isla Clements, Michelle Fasoro and Aimee Calder also won bronzes for their combined time of 55.20secs.

Finally, the U15 boys races saw medals for Ray Taylor, taking 800m gold in 2:08.43 and silvers in the 300m (39.69secs) and long jump (4.92m).

Hamish Hunter claimed 1500m silver in 4:29.16, while the 4x300m boys team of Daniel Alexander, Hamish Hunter, Cahal McAtarsney and Ray Taylor secured bronze medals in the tightly fought race by finishing in 2:53.95.

As a result of these medal places, plus other Falkirk athletes just missing podium spots or achieving many top three spots in the B races and field events, Vics finished in fourth place overall behind Giffnock North, Team North Lanarkshire and Edinburgh AC, a mighty achievement for a small club and one which earned a promotion to Scotland Central Division 1.