CENTRAL Athletic's Matt Chandler was on superb form as he took a gold and silver medal at the Scottish Under 17 Indoor Championships on Saturday.

The 16-year-old from Balfron started in the 60m hurdles confidently having recently set a club record of 8.47s whilst representing Scotland in Ireland. The final was a tense affair with multiple restarts as an athlete’s blocks slipped then two athletes were disqualified for false starts.

When they finally got away at the fourth time of asking, Matt raced well and took 2nd place in 8.76s for silver. However, he knows it could have been better as his personal best would have won the gold.

Matt did not have to wait long to climb on top of the podium though as he was on top form in the pole vault. He cleared his opening height 3.61m first time however he had a scare at the next height of 3.71m as he twice cleared it only for the pole to knock the bar off. He finally did manage to clear it and throw the pole away on the 3rd and final attempt but this left him trailing his rival, Finlay Walker from Kilbarchan who had cleared first time to lead on countback.

At 3.81m Matt made no mistakes though as he was clean over at the first attempt to set a new club indoor record and retake the lead. With his only challenger failing, Matt had secured victory. He made some good attempts at 3.91m but was unable to go clear but was happy with a gold medal and new club record.

Balfron teammate Matthew Meredith was just outside the medals after setting a season’s best 3.11m.

Katie Sharkey was also on the podium in the 60m hurdles. She set a superb personal best 8.92s in her heats before taking bronze in the final with 8.99s.

The girls shot competition saw two Central athletes just outside the medals as Rachael Methven threw a seasons best 9.70m for 4th, just 6cm short of the bronze medal position. Scottish pentathlon international Lucy Smith was just behind with an indoor pb 9.36m before clearing 1.48m in high jump for 7th.

Anna Cameron was on good form in the 60m setting a personal best 8.16s in the semi final to progress to the final then went even faster in the final with 8.13s for 7th place overall. She then ran a seasons best 27.04s in the 200m semi-final which was not quite enough to reach the final.

Elizabeth Thompson also took part in the sprints equalling her 60m pb with 8.51s to progress to the semi-finals then sett a new pb in the 200m with 27.82s.

The 1500m saw two Central athletes competing. Keir Howlieson ran an indoor personal best 4:19.16 to reach the final where he finished 9th. Ben MacMillan was returning a year after he made his breakthrough performance at last year’s indoor championships where he won silver at the under 15 age group. Competing in his new under 17 age group he ran an indoor pb 4:22.76 however this was not enough to progress to the final at this age group.

Cameron McCorgray was Central ACs top performer as Scotland’s top senior athletes contested the Scottish National Indoor Championships at the Emirates arena in Glasgow.

The 18-year-old from Tillicoultry claimed his first ever Scottish medal at senior level as he took bronze in the high jump. First time clearances at every height up to 1.98m was enough for Cameron to take 3rd place. He then attempted a new personal best 2.03m which was beyond him this time but he can be proud of stepping on the podium at a senior event which was won by Glasgow athlete David Smith who set a commonwealth games qualifying standard 2.21m.

At 18, Cameron has plenty of time to improve and can hopefully reach this level for the next games in four years.

Peter Muirhead was returning to defend his long jump title he won a year ago to become the first Central athlete to win a senior Scottish indoor title since 1987. A first round 7.21m initially put him in 2nd place but he found himself up against a strong field and was unable to improve on this as he finished 5th overall.