Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th July
Dundee played host to the National combined events and Masters track championships over the weekend. With conditions near perfect, records were sure to fall. Over the weekend Greenock Glenpark Harriers had three athletes make their way across the country to complete in the various events on offer.
Day one
Jill Cox and Andy McCall were pleasantly surprised to see each other on the Saturday as both runners were unaware of each other competing on day one. Andy was up first taking on the 3,000m steeplechase. Having not raced in this event for 20 years it was always going to provide a tough challenge. Andy was delighted to come away with gold in the V35 age group.
Not long after was the 1500m events with Jill off first in the veteran ladies race. Both runners lacked any experience at a 1500m race with their only real experience coming in the 1 mile road races. Jill was up against Laura Haggarty (British Master champion and European 5th place runner) pushing the GB runner all the way to finish 2nd overall and 1st V45 to secure the Gold medal, adding another National title to her name. Topping off a fine performance Jill smashed the previous V45 record for this event, held by Sonia Armitage, taking 4 seconds off the previous best.
Only 50 minutes after the previous event Andy lined up to take on the near 4 lapped event. Andy kept his splits consistent and was pleasantly surprised to run a Personal Best time and win the V35 bronze medal.
Day two
The second day saw the more familiar longer distance events at the track. With four GGH athletes entered only Jill Cox and Paul Monaghan made the start line. It was great to see Paul was back in action at the Masters events, adding another medal to his incredible collection. In the men’s 5,000m (race 1), Paul went out hard for the first 2km and managed to hold on to secure 2nd v50. It was a nervy wait for Paul to see what the other v50s would produce in the 2nd race. In the end Paul secured a silver medal in a brilliant time of 17:15:74.
Next up in the 5,000m was Jill, racing for the 2nd day in a row. Similar to yesterday’s 1500m, Jill went out quick and sustained the pace for the duration to finish 2nd overall and another gold in the v45 category in a time of 18:13.70! To top off a hugely successful weekend for Jill, she also took 1 minute off the previous championship best for the 5,000m. That’s two masters record broken in the same weekend by Jill.
It was a successful weekend as the harriers came home with 5 medals and 2 records.
Results
3,000m Steeplechase
Andy McCall: 10:40:15 (1st v35)
1500m results
Jill Cox: 4:55:14 (1st v45)
Andy McCall: 4:35:05 (3rd v35)
5,000m results
Paul Monaghan: 17:15:76 (2nd V50)
Jill Cox: 18:13:70 (1st V45)
