Greenock Glenpark Harriers kicked off season 24-25 in spectacular fashion with 91 Harriers and guests turning out for the first club race of the championship, the JG Cameron. This race is a hard out and back consisting of 4km on the road, from the start midway along Greenock Esplanade, round the mid gate of the Battery Park and back along a lung-bursting chase to the finish line. The weather just about held off during the run, despite rain battering in for the hour leading up to the start, and conditions ended up fairly agreeable for an exciting race.
From the go, current mens joint club champion Dylan Crawford set his stall out early, aiming to lift the JG Cameron trophy for the first time. Dylan went out hard at the front, followed by a chasing pack consisting of form men Lewis McCrae and Daniel Doherty, with Oliver Reilly, John Logan and Kev Craig not far behind. Dylan was flying early, taking the race to the pack as he started to open up a gap towards the end of Esplanade and from there he was in cruise control. The chasing pack couldn’t live with the pace and Dylan kept it going for an outstanding victory, crossing the line in 12:58.
Daniel Doherty pushed ahead of the chasing pack through the Battery park, maintaining his effort to finish second in 13:30. With an outstanding run, Oliver Reilly left everything on the course to finish in third with a time of 13:41. A great battle for the next place was taking place between John Logan (enjoying the shorter race than his recent Loch Ness 24 effort), and Lewis McCrae. John picked up the pace to overtake Lewis as they headed out of the Battery, but the youngster was up for the fight and finished with an impressive kick towards the finish, to claim fourth place ahead of John by just a second. Vice Captain Kev Craig was the final runner to dip under 14 minutes in 13:56, and 6th place.
Impressive runs were also evident from Andy McCall in seventh, just ahead of Stevie Campbell (1st V50), Owen Atkinson (working his way back from injury) for ninth, and rounding out the top ten runners was GGH podcast host Chris Mooney in tenth place. Andy McCall and Neil Lafferty both ran steady efforts as part of their preparation for the British Masters Half Marathon Champs in Dumfries the following day, (report to follow).
Further down the field, a brilliant run from David Thomson saw him kick away from a pack of Colin McKnight, William Taylor and Stephen Harrison as they passed the Battery Park Gate; David built up a steady lead on the group and finished two seconds behind Kevin O’Donoghue. After a slow start, Stephen managed to claw back the race to move ahead of Colin and William, but Colin wasn’t having any of it and put on a massive charge toward the last two hundred metres to finish nine seconds clear of Stephen. Impressive runs down the field included sub 17’s from Graham McGrattan, Alan Robertson, and Kevin Begley; and a special shout out to club legend Danny McLaughlin, finishing just ahead of coach Alan O’Rourke in 17:04 in what he maintains will be his last club race because of ongoing injuries.
Something we’ve not seen for a while is an uncertain outcome in a Ladies race! Struggling with an injury, current ladies champion and favourite for the race Jill Cox had to pull out before the start, meaning the ladies race was anyone’s guess. Recent summer meritorious winner Evie Harrison had a difficult start, finding herself boxed in at the back of the pack, but fought her way through the field and pushed into second, catching third placed Jennifer Rooney as the runners started down the middle section. Evie ran new PB to finish in second place, but couldn’t make up enough ground on the returning Ruby McGill, who ran an impressive race and took first place in a time of 16:21, nineteen seconds ahead. Jennifer Rooney ran hard as well, taking third spot in 17:25.
There were also outstanding runs from Melissa Wilson, Ashley Anderson, Nathalie Smith and Lynne Harrison all fighting hard to come in under 18 minutes. Lauren Boyce performed well in her first time on the course, and Charlotte McKay had a great performance in 23:44. A special thank you to Lynne Fulton, volunteering in the new Tail Runner volunteer role, who kept pace with V80 winner Eddie Devine to round off this season’s inaugural event.
A special thank you to the Dolan Family for their continued sponsorship of the JG Cameron.
And to Daniel Doherty for contributing to this report!
Next Race: Colin Shields – Saturday 26th October.
New Course confirmed – Port Glasgow, details on our Social Media