Senior/U20 Event Roundup 6 th March 2024

As we come into March, there are more and more events on the card and our athletes have certainly
been out and about plenty in the last couple of weeks – as usual we have a lot of successes to
report! Please let us know if we have missed anything out, we love to share good news with club
members.

We start this week’s report with the big one – the Lindsays National XC Championships. Held at
Callendar Park in Falkirk on Saturday the 24 th of February, we were treated to an absolutely glorious
day and some top class racing. In the U20 races we only had one representative in the men’s race,
but Jonathon Downey certainly made it count with a 6 th place finish – excellent running! In the U20
ladies race Sasha I’Anson made a welcome return to competition finishing a fantastic 17 th overall,
and Izzy Caufield finished her XC season with a fine 38 th place. In the senior races again we were thin
on the ground, but our sole lady Kat Kelly did the club proud with an outstanding 25 th overall and 4 th
V40 in the ladies race. 5 men started in the senior men’s race which had a massive 665 finishers, but
unfortunately we lost Paul Black and Ross McNaught in the course of the race so only had 3
finishers. Craig Ferguson was first back in 107 th place overall, followed by Nick Carter in 506 th and
Nationals first timer Gary Martin not far behind Nick in 523 rd place. Great running from everyone in
the sunshine – let’s get more entries in next year though!

Also on the 24 th some of our athletes were at Crownpoint for the Scottish Athletic Winter Long
Throws event. U20 athlete Logan Mitchell picked up a 2 nd in the discus with 38.79m and 2 nd in the
hammer with 45.46m. Well done Logan and also our younger athletes out on the day who put in
some tremendous performances.

Saturday the 3 rd saw what has become one of the most popular races for our senior athletes in
recent years – the Allan Scally relays. From an initial 9 teams entered, we managed to put out 7 and
a half (sorry Russ and Brian!) on the day. A total of around 250 teams started with a total of 929
athletes completing a 5k leg on the day. For the men, our A team of Jonathon Downey (14:58),
Matthew Monachello (16:58), Craig Ferguson (15:55) and Sam Rice (16:42) finished an excellent 13 th
overall in some very good company. Next back for the men were Brian O’Connor (18:35), David
Anderson (19:29), Mark Henderson (20:15) and Lewis Anderson (17:55) in 72 nd men’s team overall
and in 89 th overall were the C team of Mike Corson (22:03), Alasdair Murray (21:29), Murray
McDonald (20:02) and David Young (20:41). We also had a partial team of Russell Duncan (22:41)
and Brian McLure (26:42). For the ladies, it was a fabulous 8 th place finish for the A team with
Katrine Kelly (18:00), Lorna Baird (18:24), Eve Starritt (21:09) and Lynsey O’Connor (18:51). Our B
team were 23 rd overall with Kirsty Girvan (21:08), Bethany Ross (21:50), Izzy Caufield (21:25) and
Lynsey Jamieson (22:24). The C team finished in 38 th with Eilidh Ballantyne (22:56), Amy Alexander
(26:42), Lauren Little (25:19) and Susan McGurn (26:20). Our V40 ladies team (who actually had 2
V50+ athletes) finished 3 rd in their category with Jennifer Beattie (20:12), Jackie Duncan (28:01), Amy
Mitchell (25:49) and Susan Boyd (27:17). On top of this, Katrine Kelly was fastest FV40 and Jonathon
Downey was fastest U20 on the day (with top 20 age group finishes also for Lorna, Izzy, Lewis, Eve
and Jennifer) and there were too many PBs to mention – huge congratulations to all athletes who
put a toe on the line for the club, it was great to see some of the Jog Squad team coming into the
teams for the first time and some of our younger athletes stepping up into senior teams.

Sunday the 4 th was another glorious spring day, and some of our Harriers headed down the coast to
compete in the trail races at Culzean. In the 10k it was a 2 nd place overall and 1 st lady for Kat Kelly
(41:40), and 61 st overall for Louise Baillie (9 th senior lady) in 59:20. In the half marathon, Paul Black

was 33 rd overall (1:46:18) and Jacqui Sandler was 131 st (7 th FV50) in 2:13:37 over what I hear was a
challenging course. Well done to all of our athletes!

Also on the 4 th but enjoying considerably warmer sunshine, Richard Beattie was competing at the
Logicom Cyprus 10k and was delighted after an illness disrupting training to finish 3 rd V70 in 55:41.
He also competed in a ‘wine run’ on Tuesday which I’m reliably informed isn’t as much fun as it
sounds (though you do get wine as a prize!).

The completion of the Allan Scally relays marked the end of the winter championships, and winners
have now been announced – huge congratulations to all of our winners, enjoy your moment at the
prize giving! We will shortly be looking to publish the race list and rules for the summer league – if
anyone has any suggestions for something a bit different this year please speak to your captains.