West Districts Cross Country 2013 (Senior report)

BEST IN WEST COME TO KILMARNOCK.

Hot on the heels of the news that Team Scotland athletes will be basing themselves in Kilmarnock in advance of next year’s Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, the general feelgood factor amongst the local sporting community continued on Saturday when the hugely prestigious West District Cross Country Championships came to town.

Held in the shadows of the majestic Ayrshire Athletics Arena, the Scott Ellis playing fields provided the venue for the start of all age group races and with a number of surrounding fields being utilised to the full the course was definitely a challenging one for the hundreds of athletes who converged on the town. As well as such an interesting course, organisers Ian Gebbie, Hugh Rankine, Alex Graham and all the army of helpers had also provided a setting which was massively spectator friendly and as such all the runners were never short of support at any point throughout the tough challenge.

Fairly flat, muck was however the order of the day and once the Juniors had finished up it was the turn of the Senior Ladies to take centre stage.

As it turned out, this was to prove the local Club with the best moment of the day as while Elspeth Curren led from gun to tape Kara Tait had a very good run indeed not too far behind. Kara settled in a high position for the majority of the race and cemented an excellent 5^th place when all was said and done for her highest position at Districts level to date.

Ably supported by former race winner Lindsay McMahon and Paula Wilson who were both making a welcome return to racing, the Killie trio can all be happy with good runs on tough conditions and set the tone for the Senior Men who were last race of the day.

Times of the Harriers were – 5^th Kara Tait 22.28, 35^th Lindsay McMahon 25.50, 62^nd Paula Wilson 28.01

The Senior Men took on over 6.5 miles, including the now infamous swamp 3 times during the course of the race, and like the Ladies race the eventual winner led from the start as Shettleston athlete Tewoldeberhan Mengisteab claimed gold.

Behind him however, a number of local athletes ran well in the absence of in form Graham Cameron who unfortunately was a late withdrawal which weakened the team a bit. Cameron Wilson who was runner up in the Open Cross Country on the same course a few weeks ago narrowly missed his top 20 target by a place, while mentions go to James Wales coming hot off a nightshift and Richard Skillen who too was making a return to competitive action.

In the mens field, Kilmarnock Times and positions were – 21^st Cameron Wilson 39.39, 39^th Scott Martin 40.51, 60^th Neil Walker 42.44, 70^th James Wales 43.15, 168^th Kenny Wales 52.06, 175^th Richard Skillen 53.02.