Greenock Glenpark Harriers Willie Jukes Race:
20th Anniversary Race – Dunoon, 3rd May 2025
On Saturday, 3rd May, Greenock Glenpark Harriers took the short journey over the Clyde to Dunoon, for the club’s annual Willie Jukes Race, a race now held to commemorate the life and enduring legacy of Willie Jukes – a true Glenpark Harrier. This year’s event held particular significance, marking the 20th anniversary of Willie’s passing, and the club aimed to make it the most well-attended yet. Members were keen to journey to Dunoon to offer their support to Betty and the Jukes family.
Willie was the heartbeat of the club’s Dunoon contingent. A dedicated runner, he was a club champion for three consecutive years (1993–1995) and a victor of both the JG Cameron Trophy and the Bill Elder Shield in 1997. His enthusiasm for running inspired many to embrace the sport he loved.
The race, initially known as the Singlehurst Shield, relocated to Dunoon in 1997, largely through the efforts of Willie and Dunky MacNeill. Following Willie’s tragic death in 2005 during a long training run, the event was renamed in his honour. Each year since, the Jukes family have graciously supported the race. This past Saturday, they extended a warm invitation to all Harriers to join them at Sinbads after the race for food, drinks, and live music – the day being a fitting way to remember a man who contributed so much to the club.
A total of 71 runners successfully completed the race on a beautiful, sunny afternoon. The race heads out from West Bay Pavilion and follows the coast road to Innellan before turning back for a total distance of 5 miles, and is non-conceding handicap championship event.
Conditions were mostly perfect for a compelling race, with the club championships still wide open in both the handicap and senior men’s events. As expected, with everything to play for the current joint men’s champions Neil Lafferty and Dylan Crawford grabbed the pace by the scruff of the neck and went off hard from the gun, neither man willing to let the other break away. They quickly put some distance between themselves and the chasing pack, hitting the 4km turn well ahead and still shoulder to shoulder – and so it remained as the miles ticked off. With the finish line in sight it was Dylan who found an extra gear and managed to pick the pace up for the win, going over nine seconds ahead of Neil with a brilliant time of 26:52.
It was good to see local runner Stewart Greenway picking up third spot as he returns to club running, his time of 29:10 highly credible but illustrating just how hard the top two finishers went out. Stewart had a photo finish with the excellent Paul Monaghan, also in a time of 29:10 and doing no harm at all to his chances in the v50 championship table. Another runner coming back to his best form his Andrew Osborne, running home for fifth spot just outside the half hour mark with 30:13.
Ladies races don’t usually hold any surprises regarding the first place runner these days, with club champion Jill Cox well ahead in the field. So it proved again today as Jill returned a brilliant time 31:14 to finish some distance ahead of Melissa Wilson 36:49 and Jennifer Rooney 37:16 in second and third respectively, both ladies also having fantastic runs. Fiona Macfarlane had a great run in 37:50 for fourth, and it was great to see Sandra Campbell take fifth in 39:08.
Handicap races are always highly anticipated and it proved no different today as the runners lined up. The handicap committee have done a brilliant job of making these events difficult to predict recently, with lots of runners in contention for a high place on the leaderboard. Even if the outcome of the handicap is never certain, one thing that you can guarantee is the winner will have to put in a real effort to make it count. In the end, only ten seconds (and some genuine personal heartache) separated the top three.
In third, running the Willie Jukes for the first time, was Sean Macfarlane (HC: 25:17). Sean has been training hard recently with a strong showing at Hyrox, and had a great run on the day which might even have put him in contention for the win. Sadly, his lack of experience on the course led to a huge error right at the end of the race when he misjudged the finish line, and stopped 50m out – losing precious seconds when every second counts. A tough lesson for next year!
Second place with a time of (HC: 25:14) went to senior coach Alan O’Rourke, a great run from Alan to push himself into contention on the day – his run seemed to please him enough to entertain the after party attendees with a surprisingly good turn on the karaoke. However, there can be only one winner at the end of the day and this year that honour goes to Paul Caulfied, heading over the line in 42:34 for a (HC 25:04), ten seconds ahead of Alan.
The huge turnout makes it impossible to give everyone a mention but well done to all our runners – and to the volunteers today for making the event go so smoothly. A Special thanks once again to the Jukes Family for their support of the race over the last 20 years.
#En Avant!
A huge thank you to CUSTOM AUTOS for sponsoring this year’s race.
Photo credit: Peter McLaughlin
Next up – Chisholm Mile Tuesday 27th May
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