Heavy snow and freezing temperatures set up an interesting course at Kirkland Playing Fields, Strathaven on Saturday 5th December for the Harriers to tackle. Our runners have endured a hectic season which led to depleted entries across the age groups.
Our Juniors made their way through for the early start with Aimee McEleny kicking off the day’s events in the U13 girls race. The frozen ground didn’t stop our Aimee from having another strong race over the 3km route, finishing in 41st place with a time of 16:13. Nuala Quigley was the solo Glenparker in the U15 girls race finishing in 46th place (21:12). Also competing over 4km was Lewis Scott in the U15 boys race. Lewis had a very good race finishing 27th (16:52).
Moving up the age groups, it was over to the older Juniors. In a highly competitive U17’s race, Lewis McCrae showed his strength finishing 32nd over 5.5kms. Our U17 Girls managed to field a strong team where all 3 girls finished within 75 seconds of each other. Summer Taggart was first home in 20th place (25:49) backed up Evie Harrison in 23rd (26:28) and Erin McEleny in 25th place (27:04). It was brilliant to see the girls all produce excellent races to finish 4th team just behind a strong Garscube team.
In the U20 Women’s race we were delighted to see Ruby McGill and her team mates at Glasgow University take a well deserved silver team medal. Ruby finished in an excellent 12th place overall.
With the ground softened a little and a lot of the snow now cleared from the Junior races it was over to the Seniors. Both of the Seniors races competed over 3 laps, a distance of around 7.5km. The course was rarely flat and was going to provide a real challenge both physically and mentally for the runners.
Six Senior Women completed the race with our Ladies Captain, Lynne Harrison, leading the team home.
Lynne has been training consistently for some time now and is reaping the benefits of all the hard work. Lynne also finished 3rd in the W50 age category. Inspired by her daughters, Marianne McKay was next to cross the line in 38:36 backed up by Jill Aikman who ran a very strong race. Eileen Stevenson recorded another cracking race but would have been aware of Helen Crawford chasing her down, finishing within 1 minute of each other. June Anne McKnight received the biggest cheer of the day, finishing well within the hour and making up the final team place.
In the final race of the day 13 Senior Men lined up against the best in the West. At the sharp end of the field and buoyed by his phenomenal performance at the recent British & Irish Masters XC, Neil Lafferty went out hard, looking to add silverware to his already impressive collection. Unfortunately, a niggling hamstring led Neil to pull out after 2 laps. It was over to the Senior Men’s club champion Dylan Crawford to lead the team home. Dylan ran a perfectly paced race to finish well inside the top 50. Andy McCall benefited from a steadier start than normal and worked his way through the field to finish just outside the top 50. Colin McKnight ran an outstanding race to finish 3rd for the senior men just ahead of PB man William Taylor and club captain Stephen Harrison. National medallist, Frank McMahon added another accolade to his name, finishing first in the M70 category. Very well done once again Frank! Micky Dunn finished just outside the medals in the M65 category in 4th place. Not to be outdone but his sister, Harry McGill ran a strong race to finish just ahead of Dylan and secured a team bronze medal for Glasgow Uni.
Results
U13 Girls
41st Aimee McEleny
U15 Boys
27th Lewis Scott, 16:52
U15 Girls
46th Nuala Quigley, 21:12
U17 Men
32nd Lewis McCrae, 20:43
U17 Women
20th Summer Taggart, 25:49
23rd Evie Harrison, 26:28
25th Erin McEleny, 27:04
Senior Women
72nd Lynne Harrison, 36:57 (3rd W50)
81st Marianne McKay, 38:36
86th Jill Aikman, 39:18
96th Eileen Stevenson, 43:05
97th Helen Crawford, 44:11
98th June Anne McKnight, 53:59
Senior Men
47th Dylan Crawford, 26:31
53rd Andy McCall, 26:43
127th Colin McKnight, 31:01
132nd William Taylor, 31:21
134th Stephen Harrison, 31:27
159th Greg Luke, 32:30
168th John Stevenson, 33:07
192nd Michael Dunn, 34:56
194th Derek Mitchell, 35:14
202nd Alan O’Rourke, 36:09
213th Frank McMahon, 37:47 (1st M70)