Sunday 25th January 2026 – Strathclyde Park, Motherwell
Five ladies teams and three men’s teams boarded the Harriers Team Bus to Motherwell on a bitterly cold Sunday morning to take part in the SVHC Masters Relays this year, an event for which the Harriers have recently been showing up well in the results. Today was no different, with success coming in both the gender categories – some brilliant running in very difficult conditions, the newer out and back 6k course meaning runners faced a dreadful headwind after the turn on the closing two kilometres.
The Men’s A Team was led off by the in-form Neil Lafferty, who had a brilliant run to bring the Greenock club home in second place with a time of 20:08. Next out was John Logan (21:48), followed by another strong run from 8th place overall Andy McCall (21:30), cutting into the leaderboard. John Hampsey brought in the fourth leg to put the Harriers team into 3rd place overall on the day, a great result indeed considering the quality of the teams taking part.
In the Men’s B Team, Duncan Anderson led off with (23:30), followed by William Taylor (24:58), Stephen Harrison (25:39) and Stephen Reid (28:27) for 11th place overall. The V50 men had a difficult afternoon against some strong opposition, but Graham McGrattan (29:05), Paul Meahan (29:24), Sean Doherty (33:48) and Gerard Robertson (31:39) did well for 7th position from 10 overall.
The Harriers ladies went one better than the men, with the A Team of Jill Cox (24:02), Ashley Anderson (27:55) and Jill Aikman (28:44) putting in an outstanding performance to take 2nd place overall. Jill Cox’s time also put her in 2nd fastest lady on the day, with Jill Aikman 4th in the V50 category. Ashley’s continued dedication in training has really been evident, and it was great to see her take 8th senior lady for Greenock.
12 seconds behind Jill Aikman for the ladies B Team, Lynne Harrison (28:56) also finished in the top ten V50 ladies in 7th, and the team of Nathalie Smith (31:05) and Heather Lafferty (30:47) did really well to finish 8th from 19 clubs. Greenock C of Stephanie Halden (36:37), Lana Killeen (39:50), and Charlotte McKay (40:36) took 14th position. Greenock D of Lorna MacMillan (35:02), Kirsteen Robin (34:12) and Maureen Doherty (36:54) were 13th. Greenock E of Alison Smart (42:02), Doris Heron (40:50) and Janette Simpson (47:56) were the final ladies home in 16th.
A big thank you to Wilson’s Coaches for allowing the teams to use the bus as a base camp when we discovered the changing rooms and cafe were closed until 2027, and to the Scottish Veteran Harriers Club for the organisation.
