Island Athletes Run At Top Event

Athletes from the Western Isles only just managed to get off the islands in last weeks high winds to represent the North of Scotland in Hollyrood Park, Edinburgh to contest the Scottish Inter District Championships. A party of 16 from Stornoway Running and Athletics Club managed to get across the Minch on the last sailing on Friday and therefore arrived comfortably in time in the capital. But for the athletes leaving from Lochmaddy the story was somewhat different, in fact it was a journey of almost epic proportion that demonstrated their commitment to getting to the event to compete! In total they were travelling for twenty-two hours before finally getting off the ferry! But even with just a little sleep the day before the race some good performances were put in!

The Hollyrood park venue now seen as one of the best cross country course on the European scene wasn’t much fancied by the Stornoway athletes more used to the steep hills and tough running of the Lews Castle grounds! But although Hollyrood did not offer the same climbs, the mainly flat (and fast) course was very much open to the wind, offering little if any shelter as the athletes ran their various distance lap events. This proved to be a big challenge to the athletes strength and even the International athletes found the wind a big problem, Geleta Burka (Ethiopia), winner of the women’s International race commentated that it had been the worst conditions she had ever raced in!

The best performances from the home athletes in the under 13 races were from Robert Jones, Calum Robertson and Josh Sinclair. After some questionable positioning at the start of the race Robert Jones worked steadily through the field picking off runners to take a top ten finish in seventh place! This gives Robert a good basis for a really good attempt to go a little better at next months Scottish National Championships at Falkirk on February 10th. Robertson and Sinclair did well to claim a top six-team place for the North, thus ensuring a bronze medal for their efforts.

The best performances from the North Uist team came from Iain Paco MacDonald and Angus MacDougal in the men’s under 17 race. Both were clearly disadvantaged due to their twenty-two hour journey just to make it to dry land, not to mention the onward journey and lack of sleep. But both placed well in the race and were second and third respectively for the North team, Joe Smithyman (Uist) and Calum Smith (SRAC), also picking up team bronze medals. Paco felt unhappy with the run but his placing would indicate that if that’s an unsatisfactory run then there’s more to come when it really counts! That is, the National Championship next month when he can try and improve on his individual placing.

Throughout the age category races the strength and depth of athletes to choose from for the East and West Districts was and has always made the challenge of the North team a difficult one but all of the North team from the Islands eagerly and positively took on the challenge far from their “home turf”! So an enjoyable day was had by all and especially of coaches Adrienne Stewart, Mairi Levack, Coinneach Morison and Ross Munro watching their respective club athletes give their best, well done to all those taking part!

In addition to their own races the isles runners got to see the very best (and in the case of Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele almost unbeatable) run and at speeds that took the breath away! The Great Edinburgh Cross Country International in itself made the trip worthwhile and the young athletes are all ready looking forward to next year’s event, which will host the World Cross Country Championships. To top the weekend off SRAC athletes Kirsty Munro, Uileam and Calum Lawson met and chatted with Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya) who placed third behind the great Bekele in Edinburgh and recently set a world road’s 10k record! (pictured below) 

SRAC would like to thank the Lewis and Harris Sports Council for financial assistance, also the Ullapool sports centre for kindly accommodating the team during the time stranded in the village awaiting the departure of the ferry and the Ullapool team room who were most helpful.

A Tupper