12th April 2026
The Central Scotland Athletics League (CSSAL) is a collection of 3 track & field meets, open to athletes from U12 (birth year 2015 & 2016) up to Masters (35+ on the day of competition). 24 clubs compete across 3 divisions of the league. In 2026, following relegation from Division 1, CAAC compete in Division 2, alongisde North Ayrshire, Airdrie, Clydesdale, Whitemoss, Springburn, Helenburgh, and East Kilbride.
The remaining league matches for 2026 are on Sunday 10th May at Grangemouth, and on Sunday 12th July at Crownpoint. If you / your child is available to represent the club, please let us know through this form.
CAAC opened our 2026 CSSAL season at Linwood on April 12th, and Sprints coach, Lewis Innes, brings us his reporting from the day. Read on to hear how our team got on…
The Calm before the Storm
The day started off looking lovely as I arrived, but that was just the weather trying to trick us into a false sense of security for what was yet to come.
Arriving at the track, I found that someone had already given Stewart from my group a microphone as we were the convening club, while Coach Mike was shut inside a large garage with a small table, a laptop, a folding chair and a few other officials for company. This left George, Amanda and me to sheperd our troops into place where we could.
Going the Distance
The competition started well with a fairly unique way of getting to the line from Alice who attempted the drop tuck and roll with a lap to go in the 3000m but unfortunately had to deal with the pain of not managing the roll section at the end. She later suggested this may be something for her and her coach to work on as the season continues. She did however still manage to be part of an emphatic first A, first B and first Master across the line from CAAC resulting in an outstanding 48-point haul from one race alongside Emily and Kirsty.
The team struggled a little with lack of numbers in the U12 and U14 boys categories but where we had runners, they performed well. Blair put in a great solo performance picking up a bundle of points for the day despite being the only U14 boy and there were further successes with Charlotte and Emie bringing in great points in the U12G 600m. A PB for Roi in the 800m was a just reward for his efforts and the points for a third place contributed greatly towards the team’s total. The distance points were finally completed with another double of 800m wins for Alice and Kirsty which left us in a good position pre-sprints.
During the whole day but particularly around this time the weather thought it would have a laugh at us all by changing wind direction, rain, hail and blazing sunshine all at what felt like completely random intervals. My personal delight of having a Sunday off in the sunshine was rather dashed in 5,10, and 15 minute bursts followed by severe consideration for sunscreen in April. This meant that all the runners, throwers and jumpers had absolutely zero idea of what condition they were going to be competing in which made things substantially more difficult. Well done to them!
The 400’s started just before lunchtime with a great double points haul from Felix and Blair in the U18M race taking 2nd A and 1st B with good times for the conditions and a great run in the wind and rain from Elson. Sadly, those would be our only 400m runners of the day leaving points on the table.
Field Events & Officials
The mornings field events garnered a bundle of points picked up by everyone with the pick of the bunch being a 2nd place in U16B Javelin for Laird with an over 30m throw. A special mention also goes to Blair G for managing to record a score in what was an awful headwind during his Discus. A huge thank you to our officials who spent a decent amount of the morning working in the previously mentioned conditions while also having the complications of snapping measuring tapes and swinging cage gates in just the Discus alone! We couldn’t do it without you officials so thanks again!
” Every single run, jump, and throw mattered. We finished in 4th place on the day by just 3 points. It really shows the impact you have by coming along and getting involved.”
Soggy Sprinters
After lunch we got into the best part of the day for me (being a sprints coach) and we had some excellent runs from a number of athletes. We also had the real benefit of having a number of strong A and B runners in the 100m which managed to keep up that points total. It was great to see a number of athletes competing in their first races and what a meeting to do it. The frustrating weather conditions and a number of false starts from other athletes left some of our athletes a lot to do but they did really well. There were also a number of close finishes. So close that, without a photo finish, a few of our athletes actually had to share points. Isla and Felix both in their respective races had officials unable to split them on the stopwatch and Elson managing to get a joint win crossing the line is what was judged to be a dead heat. I think he was slightly ahead, but my judgement from around 100m may or may not have been the most precise so I’m not going to complain about a share of the spoils for that one. Interestingly, that race and a few others they had to be stopped on a few occasions for rain and Elson’s one in particular was stopped for a torrential downpour that I estimate lasted only a few minutes but flooded the track in places!
Field Stars
The afternoon was where we started to shine in field events though. A win in U18G Javelin for Heather was amazing and a special mention to Coach George for an outstanding 2nd place in the Senior Men’s Shot Putt. Despite also having to be convinced it would be a good idea to do it, Elliot and Blair R getting 1st A and 1st B in the U18B High Jump was an excellent showing so well done there.
And then it was on to the relays. Numbers meant we ended up with just a couple of teams but thanks to an athlete managing to return having already left the track we picked up excellent points in the U16 mixed relay. I then also couldn’t think of a better way to round out the day than seeing Elson pass a baton on to his daughter Alice for their first time running together to pick up 10 points in the final race.
I think the most important part of the day however was that every single run jump and throw mattered. We managed to get 4th place in the day by just 3 points. This meant that every single athlete who gained points led us to keeping that position and it really shows the impact you can make by coming along and getting involved.
Let’s get everyone along to CSSAL Round Two on 10th May at Grangemouth! Go get yourselves signed up now!
Report by Lewis Innes, CAAC Sprints Coach