Annabel MacDonald
Annabel is an excellent all round sports performer and she has been involved in many things this year. Her accomplishments in 2017 are extensive, she had the most successful year of sport by any pupil in the history of the School! Her achievements are as follows: She finished top 20 in the Glasgow Schools Cross Country Championships, She got to the semi final in the Scottish Schools 300m, She was a member of the team which finished 2nd at the Giant Heptathlon and she was in the top 5 in each of the 7 individual events and won three medals along the way. She also won gold with the team at the Giant Heptathlon Relay. She was captain of the Schools S2 Netball Team which got to the Semi Final of the Scottish Schools Gold Cup. She was also a member of the S3/4 team which won the Glasgow Schools League Title. Annabel won a Bronze medal in the 200m at the Glasgow Schools Athletics Championships. She also won Gold along with Erin Houston, Erin Moran and Eilidh McDougall in the 4 x 400m at the Scottish Schools Relay Finals, oh and they smashed the record by 11 seconds in the process as well as picking up a trophy for the most memorable performance voted by the Scottish Schools Committee. To top it all off she won the PE prize and players’ and coaches player of the year for Netball at the awards night. What a year Annabel had! This is by far the most successful year that any pupil from the school has had in a multitude of different sports, well done Annabel and thank you for all your hard work in 2017.
Eilidh McDougall
Eilidh had an absolutely sensational year of sporting successes in athletics! She became the first ever SGG Pupil to reach a Scottish Schools Athletics Final. She did this in the u16 60m event at the Scottish Schools Indoor Champs in February. There were 96 other athletes for Eilidh to beat to get to the final which is a staggering number. Along the way to the final she recorded two PBs in quick succession to book her place in the final 8. Eilidh also got to the semi final of the 200m at the same competition and recorded a PB in the heat, going under 27 seconds for the first time. She also won silver in the Glasgow Schools Athletics Championships 200m final and Silver in the 4 x 100m Relay Final too! This was her third and fourth medals at the these championships having won a gold in S1 and Silver in S2 in the 100m. Eilidh took the team home at the most memorable sporting result in the Schools history, the Gold and Record breaking 4 x 400m Relay Team. Eilidh also won female athlete of the year at the School awards night to add to her collection of awards in netball and athletics in S1 and S2. Eilidh has reaped the awards since joining East Kilbride Athletics Club and I wish her further success in 2018. Keep up the great work!
Cross-Country
This year we took a large squad to the Glasgow Schools Championships at Pollok Park. Our teams performed very well throughout all races. In the S2 Boys Race Robaidh Whyte and Duncan MacKenzie finished in the top 10 which helped the team secure bronze team medals. Robaidh finished in bronze medal position to back up the bronze he won at the Glasgow Schools 1500m the previous summer. The S4 Boys team had an outstanding day, they won the Team prize which is the first team gold the School has ever had. To top it all off Daniel Moran ran a tactically brilliant race to reclaim his title and in the process he beat all the S5 and S6 Boys too! Andrew Carey finished in 3rd position despite running the majority of the race in his socks! The school had a large number of individual top 20s and top 5 team places which is amazing considering the quality of the race and quantity of the pool of athletes other schools have at their disposal.
Special mention must go to Peggy-Nan Rodger and Robaidh Whyte who performed exceptionally well at the Scottish Schools Cross-Country Championships in Livingston in March. Both athletes finished in the top 40 of their races which is the highest placing for individuals from SGG. To get in the top 100 you need to have a good run so for them to achieve top 40 is fantastic! Peggy-Nan was also the top finisher at the Scottish Schools Road Race in October 2017 finishing in the top 30 which is a considerable improvement from her run at the same competition in 2016. Robaidh also finished in the top 40 at the Scottish Schools Road Race in a top class field. Robaidh beat the current Scottish Schools 800m champion in the process.
Giant Heptathlon
Our School finished in 2nd place overall at the Giant Heptathlon this year. The team performed each event to the best of their ability but were well beaten by a strong All Saints Team. There were individual medals for Annabel and Jack Nairn as well as our third girls relay victory in a row.
Glasgow Schools Athletics
What an outstanding two days we had at the Glasgow Schools Athletics Championships. We had a massive collection of medals going back with us to School! Here’s a run down of all the medalists:
Golds
Sophie Pettifor Discus
Devyn Heap Shot
Jacob Connelly 400m
Iver Campbell 100m
Silver
Calum Stewart 400m
Eilidh McDougall 200m
S3 Girls Relay
S3 Boys Relay
Lewis Grimmer HJ
Bronze
Logan Morrison 400m H
Josh Soutar 400m H
Lewis Conley 800m
Aidan Tittmar 400m
Daniel Moran 1500m
Annabel MacDonald 200m
Jacob Connelly
Jacob Connelly was our star performer at the Scottish Schools Athletics Championships. Jacob reached the final of the 400m for the first time and the Schools first finalist at the outdoor championships. Jacob who is relatively new to the sport after switching from rugby has progressed well in both the 200m and 400m but it’s his strength in the longer distance which makes him hard to beat. Jacob had a fantastic year of athletics after getting to the semi finals of the 400m indoors and winning the Glasgow Schools 400m final too. Knowing how hard Jacob works there will be no doubt he will be back faster in 2018.
S2 Netball Team
The S2 Netball Team took the Schools first steps into the Scottish Cup in 2016/17. Having won the S1 Glasgow Schools League in 2015/16 the team instead focussed all their attentions to the Scottish Cup rather than split their efforts between two competitions. The team remained mainly the same from S1 with Iona, Eilidh, Anna, Sileas, Annabel, Abigail. Seona and Alison all peforming in games across the year. They also welcomed Abbey and Millie from S1 to the team as no S1 team was entered into the competition. The girls won the group stage after beating St Thomas Aquinas and Bishopbriggs then went through to the Gold Section of the Cup. This meant that all the top teams from the group stages got placed into a knockout tournament. The girls played well to beat Berwickshire in the next round then came up against Strathallan where they struggled to play a high standard of Netball and allowed the opposition many opportunities on goal. In defence the team had Iona Cochrane to thank for many successful interceptions and rebounds under the goal to deny the opposition. Fortunately at the other end Millie and Seona scored the majority of the created chances and the girls won by 1 point. This meant they went through to the semi finals of the competition! Top 4 in Scotland! The team played Craigmount from Edinburgh who were the eventual winners of the competition. The girls played their best Netball during the game and should be very proud of their achievements in getting to the final 4! Not to mention that we were the smallest school in the whole competition! In the end the girls were well beaten by a team laden with club and district level players. This year some of their team have also been selected for the Scotland development squad which proves to you the quality they had but the SGG girls competed very well and rose to the occasion. Hopefully members of our team will now go on to join clubs too which will help to improve their skills and understanding of the game even more, they proved throughout 2017 that they are playing at a very high level already so I’m sure any club would be happy to have them. The girls were entered into the competition again in 2017/18 and have since qualified for the Gold Section of the competition again which is a massive achievement in itself.
S3/4 Netball Team
The S3/4 team this year was the strongest team the School has ever had at this age group thanks to all the consistent attendance and hard work from the players over the last 3/4 years in training. A squad of 14 was set at the beginning of the year which included a collection of players from S2-4 however the majority of the players came from the S4 year group. The S2s weren’t involved in the Glasgow league so Annabel and Seona moved up an age group to strengthen the S3/4 squad. The team knew from the start that they would have to finish in the top 2 during the league stages to get to the playoff finals which would involve the top 2 from each league coming together for a wee mini competition to see who would finish 1st-4th overall. The team started the league with a narrow defeat to Holyrood in their first game. After that the team comfortably won all their remaining group games and got better with each game. Job done, 2nd place in league secured. The team progresses to the playoff finals against Holyrood 1, Hillhead and Holyrood 2. The first game was against the S4 Holyrood team, a team that the girls had never beaten before so the girls were a bit nervous about facing them in the first game. The girls went on to win the game by a very comfortable margin which gave them a massive boost going on to the next two games. Hillhead were next and the girls continued their excellent display of Netball and dominated the game and also rotated the team to allow some players a rest going into the final game. A top 2 position was already secured, now for one last game. This time they were up against the Holyrood S3 team who had also won their two fixtures so this turned out to be a proper final for top spot and league champions. Nerves were evident beforehand but the girls played their best Netball during the final game. They were up against a quality side who were well organised but the team work from Jessica and Robyn in defence and Katrin and Seona in attack was excellent. Annabel who had played every minute of every game at centre put in an almighty shift to dominate centre court yet again along with Morag and Margaret. The girls did it, Glasgow Schools League Champions 2017!!! What an fantastic effort from the girls and they deserve the league title after all their hard work and effort over the years.
The team minus Seona and Annabel were entered into the Scottish Cup this year, the first time our school has had a Senior Netball Team in any competition. They had a tough group stage with the current Scottish Champions Hyndland and Bishopbriggs Academy. The team lost both games but put on two good displays against more experienced opposition. That meant they were placed in the Bronze section of the competition, in the 2nd round they played Aboyne Academy and narrowly won 24-21, this means they have a home tie against the Nicolson in the next round.
National Athletics Success
Pictured above are the record breaking Scottish Schools 4x400m winning team: Erin Houstoun, Annabel MacDonald, Eilidh McDougall and Erin Moran. The girls entered this competition having never ran a competitive 400m before however all 4 girls are accustomed to sprinting and in Annabel and Erin Mo we had two good 300m runners and Eilidh and Erin H were more capable of running very quick 300m too despite having never done one competitively. This was the first time the school had entered Relays into the Scottish Schools Competition. The senior boys narrowly missed out on a medal, placing 4th overall. Having seen the boys do well the girls felt more at ease with their chances. Annabel was on first leg due to her strength, she’s got a good range from 60m all the way up to 800m so she was put on this leg to ensure a good start for the team. Annabel went out and did just that, she handed us over in 3rd position at the changeover to Erin Houstoun. Erin closed the gap on the leaders to 200m then went by both runners and built up a lead of about 10m to changeover to Erin Moran. Erin relaxed into the run during the first 100m but used the wind from 100m to 200m to extend the lead. She maintained good form in the home straight for one last changeover to Eilidh McDougall. Eilidh ran a well balanced 400m an even split and actually extended the lead to about 80m at the end. What a performance from the girls to win the Schools first ever National title. The girls also clocked a new Scottish Schools Record by 11 seconds and were awarded a performance of the day trophy from the Scottish Schools Commitee for their efforts. All 4 girls put absolutely everything into their run and were totally spent at the end but they should be very proud of their achievement!
Scottish Schools Climbing
A big congratulations to Conall Whyte and Caryn Sorensen who both won bronze medals at the Scottish Schools Climbing Championships! This is their first ever medals on the National Stage and they both had tough competition to beat to win their medals. Caryn qualified 5th best in the competition and showed excellent determination to go two better on finals day. Conall knew he would have to be at his best to get a medal as the final qualifiers were all potential medal winners going by qualifying results. Congratulations to Caryn and Conall!
Glasgow Schools Swimming
The School achieved another medal in the pool at the Glasgow Schools Swimming Championships this year. This time it was a medal in the breaststroke from Isla MacDonald. Isla was in a very competitive race with 3 girls all reaching for the wall at the same time. Isla managed to hold her technique well to achieve the bronze medal, well done Isla! A tribute must be paid to the individuals who competitively swim for their clubs and work hard in training week in week out. The school has a small number of swimmers but they all compete at a high level thanks to their hard work and coaching at club level.
Daniel Moran
Here’s our 2016/17 male athlete of the year, Daniel Moran. Daniel had a fantastic 2017 for the school in athletics. He started off 2017 by racing the 1500m in the Scottish Schools Indoor Championships, a Race loaded with the who’s who of middle distance running in Scotland. Daniel rose to the occasion and record an 11 second personal best in the process: 4mins 31 seconds. Daniel showed great character in the previously mentioned Glasgow Schools Cross Country Championships. He had a big target on his back from winning the race in S3. This year he was in S4 and the race included boys from S5/6 with both groups running 4,500m instead of 3,000m. This suited Daniel as he is better at the longer distances. The race was a tactical one with Daniel seemingly holding back for the first two laps. He was positioned in first place in the S4 race at this stage but he had a handful of runners around him from the senior race. Daniel is very good tactically when in competition, this time he seased the opportunity to strike for home when the opposition were at the most fatigued. Having raced cautiously throughout he made light work of the very muddy ground over the last km. Daniel retained his title and in the process beat all the S5 and S6 Boys too. Daniel along with his excellent team mates picked up the team trophy having placed 4 runners inside the top 10. In the summer Glasgow Schools Athletics Championships Daniel was into the senior boys competition S4-6 which meant that the race was again extremely competitive. Daniel ran another consistently even paced 1500m and picked up the bronze medal with a very quick last 100m. This is his third medal in a row at these championships at the 1500m. Having just returned from a broken elbow he raced the Scottish Schools Road Race and finished 42nd in what was the highest quality field of senior boys put together for many a year. The most remarkable thing to note on all Daniels achievements is that he is not a club runner he plays football throughout the week. However in saying that he is a prime example of where a great attitude with lots of effort and hard work can get you. Daniel is strict on sticking to a good diet and keeps a consistent programme of hard work throughout the week (even on study leave) on top of his football, all this results in top class performances. Keep up the good work Daniel!
Here’s the annual SGG review on Flipagram. I wish you all the best for 2018!
Mr MacCorquodale
