A tremendous Saturday of athletics for Edinburgh Academy boys at The Scottish Schools Relay and Pentathlon Championships. In the Pentathlon the athletes compete in the Shot Putt, 100m hurdles, Long Jump, 200m and 1500m/800m.

Our Under 14 Relay team picked up a Silver medal coming second in a time of 54.09, narrowly losing out to Watson’s. The team was made up of Angus McNaughton, Peter Ning, Constance Pelvis and Robin Rowbottom. Many congratulations.

The Pentathletes had an excellent day with Calum Brown winning the Open Pentathlon with a badge standard total of 3126 points, and Angus Normand winning a silver medal and Marshall Catonio a bronze. In was a great honour to see three Edinburgh Academy athletes on the medal podium. I would imagine that this is a first at Scottish Schools athletics.

In the Under 17 Pentathlon Angus Inwood came second with a total of 2413 points and Jamie Farndale 5th with 2054 points. Angus Inwood has worked particularly hard on other areas of his athletics as well as majoring in the middle distance events and this work paid off to claim an unexpected but fully deserved silver - and he still has another year in this age group!

The toughest competition of the day was in the Under 15 Pentathlon where Freddie Smith competed superbly to beat off the challenge of another ten strong all-round athletes to win the Scottish Under 15 Pentathlon championship with a badge standard tally of 2725 points.

Well done to all the athletes but particularly Calum Brown and Freddie Smith on winning these events, an outstanding achievement.

A tremendous two days of athletics at Scottish Schools with the Academy athletes winning a bundle of medals and reaching badge standard with a number of performances.

There were a number of P.B. performances. The outstanding performance of the weekend was Sam Nicholson’s Shot Putt of 13.86m, destroying the school’s 20 year old shot record by 87cm.

Calum Brown and Freddie Smith were two of the best all round athletes on show over the two days. Congratulations to all who competed: once again the Edinburgh Academy would be close to the top of the medal table.

Sam Nicholson Open Shot – GOLD (13.86) NEW SCHOOL RECORD  Badge Standard

Calum Brown  Open Long Jump – GOLD (6.35) Badge Standard, Open 110m hurdles – SILVER (16.42), Open Triple Jump – BRONZE (12.74)

Fred Smith U15 Long Jump – GOLD  (5.64) Badge Standard, 100m – BRONZE (11.89) Badge Standard, 200m – BRONZE (24.35) Badge Standard

Davis Catonio U15 Pole Vault – SILVER (2.30), U15 Javelin – BRONZE (31.07)

Chris Thomson U15 Javelin – SILVER (38.73)

Malcolm MacNeil Open Pole Vault - SILVER (3.00)

Zander McDonald Williamson Open Pole Vault – BRONZE (2.60)

Jamie Maclean U17 Pole Vault – BRONZE (2.90)

Robin Rowbottom U14 200m – BRONZE (26.23), U14 100m – 4th (12.59)

Angus Normand Open 400m – 4th (52.06) PB
Fergus Nimmo U17 Pole Vault – 4th (2.80)

Chris Thomson U15 Javelin – SILVER 938.73)

Tom Campbell U17 High Jump – 14th (1.55)
Jamie Farndale U17 200m – 4th in heat (24.00)
Angus Inwood U17 1500m – 11th in heat (4.44.07)

On 3 June a non-exam team  of athletes competed in the Edinburgh Schools competition and all acquitted themselves exceptionally well. Results will follow but we won a number of medals and also the Edinburgh Academy’s first girls' medals with Anna Smith coming second in the high jump and Alannah Nicholson third in the discus. Well done.

v Glenalmond & Strathallan

The athletics season started well with a solid victory for Rory Paterson’s Academy athletics team at Under 17 and Open level against Glenalmond and Strathallan last Saturday afternoon. Notable victories on the track at Open Level were Angus Normand’s victory in the 100m (11.3) and 400m (54.7), and Rory Paterson’s win in the 800m in a time of 2min12. In the field the best competition of the day was seen in the Open Shot where Sam Nicholson just beat the Strathallan competitor with a putt of 12.39m.

At Under 17 level Jamie Farndale and Freddie Smith dominated proceedings where Academy athletes won six out of the eleven events. Well done to all team members.

Our next match at Open and Under 17 level is on Tuesday against Fettes, Merchiston and Stewart’s Melville; then there is an all age group competition on Saturday morning at Watson’s.

Under 17: Academy 97, Strathallan 74, Glenalmond 52

Open: Academy 93, Strathallan 79, Glenalmond 49

The Academy have had three athletics matches: full age group matches against Watson's and Stewart's Melville and an Under 17/Open match against Merchiston. The match against Watson's was particularly exciting as every age group went down to the relay result. It is a long time since we have beaten Stewart's Melville and Watson's in the same season but some excellent performances resulted in two overall wins for the Academy. On Saturday in conditions far from suited to good athletics the Under 17 team were well beaten by a very strong Merchiston team but the Open team beat their opponents. The Open team lost only one match extremely narrowly to the Watson's team when without the star Open athlete Calum Brown. Congratulations to Rory Paterson (captain) and Angus Normand (vice captain) on an excellent “match” season.

There is one more junior athletics match against Heriot's on 20th May. Other athletics dates include Edinburgh Schools (rearranged for the 3rd June) and Scottish Schools on the 6th,12th and 13th June. The athletics season is completed on the 20th June with The Games, the school’s inter-Divisional track and field competition.

Thanks must go to all staff who have been out in appalling weather conditions to judge and time keep. It is impossible to run athletics meets without them!