Ayrshire Cross Country Relay Champs 2013

MASSIVE TURNOUT, AND FANTASTIC RESULTS AT THE AYRSHIRES

On Saturday 17^th October 2013 at Scott Ellis playing fields, a brand new cross country course awaited hundreds of athletes of all abilities from around the county for the Ayrshire Cross Country Relays.

Many weeks of preparation by route master Ian Gebbie and his team had prepared an excellent test for all competitors and even during the pre race warm up it was noticeable that it would be a tough run – especially considering all the heavy rain that had fallen in recent days making it a true Cross Country course.

Defending Champions in both Female and Male Championships, the Ladies especially were always going to be the team to beat and were once more in a position to field their usual strong trio.

With all athletes doing a full 4,000 metre circuit, Captain Kara took on her usual role by leading the team out and clocked the fastest female time of the day to set Kilmarnock up nicely. As with last week, sister Colleen and reliable Lindsay McMahon brought the Harriers home and in running the 3 quickest times of all females involved the trio had a 6 minute gap between themselves and silver medallists Ayrodynamics.

Very pleasingly indeed was the bronze medal by the Kilmarnock B Team. A great mix with the experienced Paula Wilson, along with new Cross Country Runners Lynn McCaffrey and Kirstin Dale all having fine runs to make sure the day was a huge success for the host Club.

Even more pleasingly on a great day was the fact Kara was able to enter another 2 full female teams, and shows not only the strength in depth but also the fact that more and more people are having a go at Cross Country and are enjoying it.

Female Times were –

A (1^st) – Kara Tait 14.35, Colleen Tait 16.14, Lindsay McMahon 16.46 = 47.35

B (3^rd) – Paula Wilson 17.54, Lynn McCaffrey 19.56, Kirstin Dale 19.46 = 57.36

C (5^th) – Kim Todd 19.57, Jennifer Campbell 23.47, Britt Sutcliff 21.09 = 64.53

D (4^th) – Lorna Sloan 17.22, Laura Miller 20.10, Alison Houston 22.05 = 59.37

Running in the same race were the Men, and Kilmarnock had won the Ayrshire title in 2011 and 2012 after a gap of not having been Champions for many years previously.

Although slight favourites in this, Irvine were always going to be tough to beat having won 9 out of the 10 races prior to the last 2 years, but in form Graham Cameron was wisely on first leg duty for his team to hopefully set Kilmarnock up for the rest of the race.

Amazingly clocking the fastest time of the day by 47 seconds, Scott Martin was in the position of having a 51 second lead over Ayrodynamics as he set off next. Slightly increasing the lead by a couple of seconds, danger team Irvine were nevertheless in 2^nd place by the time Captain James Wales took over for the next leg.

After leg 3, anchor man Cameron Wilson had a 46 second lead heading into the last 4,000 metres but with Irvine’s main man Billy Richardson (fresh off a 32.15 10K last weekend) chasing the feeling was that it wasn’t over.

Reducing the gap to around 20 seconds at one point, Billy had a stormer. However, Cammy was exactly the correct man to be in this position and as he crossed the line in the 4^th quickest time of any athlete on the day it was enough to hold off Billy, and Irvine, by 27 seconds and it was to prove to be the first time Kilmarnock had ever won the title 3 years in a row.

Bronze was also secured in the Men’s race by Killie as the Club’s competition for places is now paying dividends with excellent strength in depth. Set off by the 3^rd and 4^th quickest Harrier on the day Roger Naughton and Neil Walker respectively, the scene was set for Stewart Ferguson and Connell Drummond to bring us home in 3^rd.

With around 30 seconds separating the Clubs 2^nd to 6^th quickest athletes on the day this is excellent for the Club as they look forward to pushing on in the future at District, and hopefully National Level.

An incredible 7 men’s teams took part from Kilmarnock, a turnout to be proud of, and times on the day were –

A Team (1^st) – Graham Cameron 12.16, Scott Martin 13.51, James Wales 13.56, Cameron Wilson 13.22 = 53.25

B Team (3^rd) – Roger Naughton 13.32, Neil Walker 13.43, Stewart Ferguson 14.30, Connell Drummond 14.56 = 56.41

C Team (DNF) – David McLeod 14.58, Colin Glencourse 14.21, Steven McNeill 16.42

D Team (7^th) – Robert Lindsay 14.35, John Parker 15.21, Alasdair Murray 15.33, Les McDerment 17.32 = 63.01

E Team (9^th) – John Docherty 16.38, Graham Cairns 16.26, Richard Skillen 16.39, Stewart McAllister 16.52 = 66.35

F Team (DNF) – John Tougher 16.13, Ken Wales 17.19, Steven Milligan 16.09

G Team – Brian Darroch 19.06