Stornoway Running and Athletics Club
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Stornoway Running and Athletics Club |
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North District XC Championships 2009 Peigi is SRAC’s new Golden Girl at District Championships!SRAC came away from this past weekend’s North District Cross Country Championships with just about every possible box ticked following a successful visit to Inverness’s Fairways course. The twenty seven young SRAC athletes that ran all performed to their expected potential and other than one injury all did the coaches at the club proud!
From the first race of the day, the colts development race for under 11’s, SRAC had very good placings in both the boy’s and girls results from the combined start race over approximately 1k. Catriona Bain, Catriona Rigby and Kristy Thomson all finished in the top five which really was a lift to the other youngsters waiting their own event. Alasdair Rigby was also well placed and Ryan MacSween put in a long sprint finish reeling in several runners in the last 120m! SRAC are delighted to have such a wealth of younger runners waiting (or training) in the wings to move up to the first recognised age group of under 13 in the next couple of seasons!
The SRAC squad and coaches then watched and cheered the prospect of even greater success in the girls under 13 race. Eight SRAC runners’ toed the line and on the starters gun Peigi McKellar and Isabelle Bain covered the moves of a very fast starting trio of Inverness Harriers. Leanne MacDonald and Mairi MacLennan settled in a little further behind the front pace and Abbie MacKay and Jane MacInnes just a bit further back. After tracking the leading Inverness athlete Peigi moved to the front of the race at about three quarters of a mile, while Isabelle was steady in fifth place. As the leaders went out of sight the remaining SRAC runners from Adrienne Stewart’s sprinter’s Kara Hanlon and Georgia MacLennan ploughed on through the muddy course at a steady pace.
Then the sighting of the leading runner with less than 200meters to go …. and it was the red and gold of SRAC through the strong front running Peigi McKellar. Peigi’s final sprint to the line gave her a nine second win over her Inverness rival and then Isabelle Bain who had been sitting in fifth place came through to take a well deserved third place bronze medal! Abbie MacKay came in as SRAC’s third counting runner in the team event in which SRAC totalled the same pints score as Inverness. On count back the third placed Harrier was fifth and therefore SRAC had to settle for the silver. But not a bad opening race!
The team silver won by the girls was then matched by the boy’s team of Jamie Sulliven, Connor MacLean and Kenny MacSween. For those of us that had attended and saw the performances of host club East Sutherland (formed less than three years ago) run absolutely rampant at the North Relays a month ago it could maybe have been expected that the other clubs would have been battling for second place. But to the credit of the under 13 SRAC boy’s including Michael MacMillan, SRAC had four runners in the top twelve places! Leading home the SRAC team was Kenny MacSween who for the second year in succession had a tremendous race at the District event. Comparisons with the four boys show totally different results from the first local x country race and so there should be plenty local competition in that age group between now and the National Championships in Falkirk in February!
Campbell MacDonald himself a past under 13 North Champion moved up with Micheil R Smith to join Duncan McKellar in the under 15 category, in a longer race of 4.5k. Hopes were a team place of some sorts, but Campbell ran very doggedly and produced a fine run in his first year in the U15 category to take the runner-up slot. Duncan McKellar also seemed to respond well to the tough hilly course extending from Fairways up to Milton of Leys hill and ran in 5th. M R Smith then sealed the second gold of the day for SRAC as his 14th place secured the team prize ahead of island neighbours North Uist. Any local under 15 boy’s wishing to build their sporting stamina would be welcomed to train with these guys at any SRAC session Tuesday’s 6pm (track) and Saturday’s 10.30am (Porters Lodge).
SRAC only had two U15 girls Rebecca Munro and Alison MacInnes enter the U15 race so although both gained top 10 placings the chance of any team success was not to be! Again 3rd and 4th year school pupils would be very welcome to be part of the SRAC training sessions and be part of the SRAC successes.
In the under 17 ladies and men’s events all three entrants from SRAC ran very good races. Ceit Stewart got very close to her training partner Holly MacIver, at the finish line the gap being only four seconds. But the four seconds did ensure that Holly piped Ceit to the Bronze medal … they race another day! Robert Jones also picked up bronze in his race behind Calum MacLeod of Ullapool. The two had a really good tussle for the second and third slot but, the early gap established by the Ullapool based Inverness Harrier proved to be too much for Jones to close in the end. However both got the biggest cheer as the two ran in on the home straight adjacent to the senior men all ready lined up and waiting for the race to finish. Bom MacKay got the cheers going for the young SRAC runner and when the senior Inverness contingent responded in favour of their boy, the whole field joined in on the applause. Well deserved for both! But surely anyone called Calum MacLeod shouldn’t be running against Stornoway, eh? SRAC now look forward to the Scottish National in February and will be looking to field as strong a senior mens team as possible and to include some of it’s older members as the club starts it’s quarter century celebrations in 2010! See details on the club web site for 25th anniversary events and full XC District results – www.srac.org.uk
Thanks to Lewis and Harris Sports Council for their support for the club’s participation at this event.
A Tupper
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