Saturday 2nd November 2024
It’s been two years since the Lindsays Cross Country Season last headed to Dunniker Country Park in Kirkcaldy, but the atmosphere was exactly the same on Saturday for another eagerly-awaited Lindsays Short Course XC. The parklands course close to Kirkcaldy High School will be well-known to many as a venue, and hosts this race in alternate years with Lanark – with three visits since 2017.
More than 1300 names were on the start lists with national championship medals up for grabs over six races featuring U15 and U17 athletes and then 4k races for Junior/Senior/Masters athletes. The large distance from Inverclyde and subsequent travelling time affected the Harriers representation this year, with only nine athletes making the race, with the ladies once again turning out in higher numbers, five to four.
The course at Dunniker is a fast and tight two loop 4k course with lots of tactical racing for runners to experience; the rain in Inverclyde didn’t make it as far east as Kirkcaldy so conditions were perfect for cross country running; the going was soft underfoot but not quite as muddy as the relays at Cumbernauld two weeks ago. In the ladies race, the first Harrier home was Jennifer Rooney, down the funnel in a strong time of 18:14, a great performance given this was the first time in over six years she’s pulled on spikes for a XC race. Next over the line was ladies Captain Lynne Harrison, continuing to improve with a time of 19:00 and 28th in the V50 age category. It was great to see June Anne McKnight on the course again, going well with a time of 25:58. Unfortunately, Alison Smart had been struggling with illness this week and this caught up with her on the day, leading to a DNF after two kilometres.
Story of the day for the ladies, however, was the evergreen Charlotte McKay, scooping her first ever national medal with a bronze for the V70 age category, with a brilliant run of 23:43. This is a fantastic achievement and very well deserved, everyone in the Harriers knows how much effort Charlotte puts into her training and how many races she turns up for every week. Well done Charlotte!
For the men’s race there was something of a repeat of the Colin Shields groupings as the Harriers were represented by Colin McKnight, William Taylor, Stephen Harrison and Greg Luke. All four men could potentially beat any of the others on any given day, with Colin maybe the favourite for this one with his XC experience usually telling. That was how the race took shape from the gun, with Colin going off extremely quickly and building up a fair bit of distance on the other Harriers. William and Stephen struggled with the compact course and found themselves boxed in and trading places with each other throughout the first half of the race, with Greg content to find his own pace a little further back in the pack.
As the race progressed, Colin began to struggle slightly with the effects of a recent cold and with one kilometre left Stephen managed to pull away from William, pushing hard to catch up with Colin with around 500m to go. From then on it was a brutal fight to the finish, Stephen going over the line with a PB at 15:42, 32nd in V50 category. Colin held on to stay ahead of William with a time 15:53, nine seconds ahead of Taylor’s 16:02. Greg completed the Harriers effort on the day with a decent time of 17:47.
An added bonus on the day was us meeting Laura Muir, as she thanked the cross country community in Scotland for their support after a ‘better late than never’ medal moment Scottish Athletics set up a special reallocated medal presentation from the European Indoors in 2015. Ian Beattie, chair of UK Athletics, handed Laura the bronze medal her performance in Prague deserved after a doping violation by a Russian athlete.
Next up: West District Championships, Barwood Park, Erskine 30th November 2024.
