Stornoway Running and Athletics Club
Scottish National XC Championships 2010 21 YEAR’S AT THE NATIONALS! In the club’s quarter century year anniversary the club “came of age” appearing at the Nationals for the twenty first time! Through the years there has been relatively good success enjoyed by Stornoway with individual medals being won on a couple of occasions. But though this was not the case in Falkirk this season there were some excellent performances that marked big improvements by some of SRAC’s young runners! Another factor for the SRAC team was - well, we were there, when so many other club’s with less distance to travel were not! This is to the great credit to all the youngsters that wanted to travel and run and to the club volunteers/senior runners who got all the kids there! Of course Jonny, James, Jim and Ross had it easy as the club’s resident jokers Jamie and Connor kept them amused between Ullapool and Stirling! But poor ‘ol Lesley and Adrienne had no such continual active craic in the all girl van!
Crisp sunny conditions made for wonderful running at the recent Scottish National Cross Country Championships at Falkirk’s Callendar Park. In the main the underfoot conditions were firm and even the best efforts of a brilliant sun was not enough to thaw the frozen turf. The outcome being that the course held up well as a couple of thousand pairs of spikes ran multiple laps of a fairly testing course! In the first race of the day, the boy’s under 13 event SRAC fielded five runners and from the gun there was a bold start from SRAC’s front runner. Conner MacLean got in great position and really put in a superb, determined race. Connor placed a superb twentieth and was SRAC’s first counter for the team. His team mates Lewis and Michael MacMillan, Kenneth MacSween and Jamie Sullivan all had different race experiences finishing eighth team. Placing eighth is all the more credible as not only will all (except Kenneth) be in the age group next year and that they placed above larger clubs/tows such as; Kirkintilloch, Perth Strathtay, Shettleston Harriers, Ayr, Dundee Hawkhill, Corstorphine, Kilmarnock and others! So well done the boy’s! Jamie’s gutsy run took him in as second team runner while Kenneth and Michael who we are used to seeing run so well so often ran a wee bit below their own expectations. But there are many more days a head and many more races! The National is a great experience just to be in such a big event and Lewis the newest addition to the team will have enjoyed being part of such a big occasion – when so many other youngsters …. were …., well, still in their beds!
In the girls event solid performances from Peigi MacKellar, Isabelle Bain, Mairi MacLennan and Abbie MacKay also took them into eighth place. Similarly there was more big name club places behind Stornoway including Cambuslang, Inverness and East Kilbride among the scalps! Adrienne’s sprinters Georgia Maclennan and Kara Hanlon also got the X County length spikes into their track shoes to cover the longer distance on grass to build their fitness base. So, all sorts of reasons to run the National and well done them too! They may well now want the distance runners to try their luck against them over 100m though! Like the boys the girls team will all be able to go back to compete the same age group so hopefully both teams can gain a higher placing!
The boy’s under 15’s were really unlucky to be one short of a team. But after a very interrupted Autumn and early winters training programme just being part of the big race day was worth while. Duncan MacKellar beat his running nemeses (and team mate) Campbell MacDonald for the second time this winter finishing a single place ahead of Campbell, but well up the field in 48th and 49th place. Micheil R Smith placed in the middle of the pack, but a return to the event next year with a better Autumn / Winter will see all move up the placings and hopefully with a fourth counter to make up a team. As with most of the team taking part Robert Jones ran in the younger level of his age group and certainly has much more to prove on his next under 17 outing. Robert’s from is improving after a bad start to the winter but his 39th place just inside the first half of the field will be good starting point to his track season in 2010. Top performances of the day came from Rebecca Munro and Chirsty MacLeod in the under 15 and senior ladies race respectively. Rebecca worked very steadily throughout the race and showed good strength on the climbs to hold position. Rebecca’s time for the 4K course was 17mins 10 which took her almost thirty places up the field from last season to twentieth position. Meanwhile Chirsty’s race in the senior ladies event was very impressive! From the gun and the charge uphill from Callendar House toward the Antonine Wall Chirsty’s intend was clear, it was, race on! Pushing right up with the leaders Chirsty pushed herself against the best of Scottish womens track, road and hill runners! Though falling back through the field somewhat she settled well in the second lap of the 5 mile race, clocked a time of about a minute faster than last year. She placed twenty-sixth, one place and one second behind last years Stornoway Half Marathon winner Julia Henderson!
Due to several “sick notes” the men’s team probably was twice the age it could have been and likely scored twice the points because of that! But the six led by Kegs MacKenzie managed to get the name on the score sheet down in twenty seventh place. But the effort to get there was appreciated by the officials and by many among the spectators that seemed to give huge cheers for the Stornoway vests! One official when seeing the SRAC tops gifted some meal vouchers and heaped praise for just being there! Phenomenon of the day in looking at the top performers Chirsty and Rebecca and adding lead senior runner Kegs to the equation was all top runs were by …. Red heads! SRAC wish to thank the Lewis and Harris Sports Council and ENABLE for their support. A Tupper.
|
