Senior Event Round Up 14th August 2023

We are now incredibly in mid-August – where has the summer gone? Since our last report our
U20/senior/masters athletes have been extremely busy across all disciplines with some fabulous
results, hopefully we have managed to capture everything but if we have missed you out please let
us know – we love to hear about and report good news as always.

We start this week’s report at the next of our club summer championship events – the Dundonald
10k. A total of 15 Harriers took on this hilly course on Wednesday the 2 nd of August and as has been
standard at all of the local road races this summer there were a number of top 3 category places.
First Harrier home on the evening and a fine 3 rd place overall and 1 st U20 was Jonathon Downey
(34:11), followed by Sam Rice making a great comeback in 7 th overall and 2 nd U20 (36:36). Rounding
off the top 3 men for the club was Paul Lafferty who was 14 th overall and 7 th senior man (37:52). For
the ladies, Sasha I’Anson took the top points in the league as 1 st U20 lady and 14 th lady overall
(49:33), closely followed by Jennie Munro as 2 nd U20 lady and 15 th lady overall (49:44). Completing
the top 3 ladies on the night was Kate Todd who was 1 st V70 lady and 34 th lady overall (57:45). There
were also age group top wins for Alasdair Murray (1 st V50 43:09) and Mike Corson (1 st V60 43:15).
Well done to everyone who took place, league tables have now been updated.

Also on the 2 nd , U20 athletes Logan Mitchell and Brooke Dunlop were at Grangemouth competing at
Falkirk Victoria’s Open Graded meet. Logan was 3 rd in the hammer with a throw of 37.01m and 2 nd in
the shot with 12.93m and Brooke was 4 th in the 200m (27.34s).

On Friday the 4 th , all roads led to the AAA for the 3 rd in the series of the Ayrshire Harriers Open
Graded events. We had a great turnout of U20/senior/masters athletes on the night, starting as we
meant to go on in the 3000m event where Jonathon Downey took the win in a PB of 9:07.5. Ross
Granger was 3 rd at his official track debut in 9:59.90, Jamie Nix was next across the line in 10:09.20,
and Mark Alexander was 6 th in 10:44.60. Rounding up a great set of results was Ellie Anderson
finishing in 9 th in 12:08.40. Moving onto the 100m, in race 1 Ally Mitchell continued his prep for
Nationals with a win in 11.27s. Josh Smith was 4 th in this race in 11.46s. In race 3 Douglas Dickson
was 4 th in 14.04s. In race 7 it was great to see Kirsty McNulty back on the line on the track posting
17.10s for 7 th place. The 800m saw more of our athletes taking to the track with Connor Scobie
finishing 3 rd in race 1 in 2:05.52 and Kirsty McNulty back out to finish 11 th in race 3 in 3:07.58. The
last track event of the evening was the 400m, where in race 1 Jordan Phillips ran a scorching PB of
50.85s to finish 2 nd . In race 3 we had senior athlete Adam Todd making his track debut running
57.31s for 2 nd place, and Laura Haggarty finishing 5 th in 62.98.

On Saturday the 5 th of August, Thomas Samson completed the Ardbeg Islay Half Marathon in 2:08.00,
finishing 62 nd overall and 14 th V40 – well done Thomas!

On Sunday the 6 th , Masters athletes Alex McIntosh and Jennifer Beattie pulled on the navy blue to
represent Scottish Veteran Harriers at the England Masters Inter-Area Challenge at Nuneaton. Alex
was competing in the shot and finished in 7 th place in a close competition with a throw of 8.61m.
The age groups are slightly different at this event and all of the other competitors in this event
would normally be in the age group below so huge well done to Alex. Jennifer had a busy day due to
team call-offs, starting the day with 7 th in a competitive 400m with a PB of 65.96s. Next was the high
jump, again finishing 7 th clearing 1.20m, then a 5 th in the 800m (2:34.5). This was followed up by a 5 th
in the 3000m in a PB of 11:46.91 and then finally running on the 4×100 team where Scotland finished
6 th .

On Tuesday the 8 th , Ally Mitchell ran 100m at the Linwood Open Graded, finishing 2 nd in 11.56 on a
very windy evening (-4.5 wind), while Laura Haggarty was 9 th in her 800m in 2:25.60.

On Wednesday the 9 th , Jamie Phillips was in action at the BMC event at Loughborough, running a fine
3:51.44 in the 1500m A race for 10 th place. Also on the 9 th , Roddie Pugh took on the Cort-ma Law Hill
race, finishing in 54 th overall and 2 nd V60 in 1:14:31 – great efforts both!

Onto the weekend, Andy Taylor was the sole Harrier at the Port Glasgow 10k finishing in 126 th in
56:48. A little further afield, Jordan Phillips was competing at the BMC Trafford Grand Prix event in
the 800m, finishing 3 rd in his race in 1:55.25 in windy conditions. A little closer to home, Shaun
Dunbar took on the Devil o’ the Highlands race – a 42 mile race from Tyndrum to Fort William along
the West Highland Way, taking in some 6500ft of elevation and tricky terrain. Shaun had a fantastic
race to finish 16 th overall and 5 th V40 in 6:40:25, huge congratulations on a massive effort Shaun!
Jonathon Downey was also in action at the Cademuir Rollercoaster Hill race, finishing 5 th overall and
4 th U20 in 26:50.

For a number of our track and field athletes, this weekend saw the culmination of a summer season
of hard work at the 4J Studios 130 th Scottish Athletics Senior/U17 championships at Grangemouth
held over the Saturday and Sunday. On the Saturday, Josh Smith and Ally Mitchell started their
campaign for medals in the 100m running qualifying times in the heats and finishing 4 th (11.29s) and
3 rd (11.07s) in their respective races. In the semi-finals both men ran good races with Ally finishing
5 th (11.12s) and Josh finishing 8 th (11.38) in their respective semi-finals, but unfortunately did not
progress to what was a very competitive final this time around. Meanwhile, Laura Haggarty and Isla
Raeburn were in action in the 800m. Laura ran a PB of 2:20.59 and Isla ran 2:33.92 to finish 6 th and
5 th in their respective heats. Laura then also took part in the 400m heats, running a solid 62.89 to
finish 5 th in her race. Isla meanwhile took part in the high jump, clearing 1.54m for joint 4 th place.
Moving onto the Sunday, Ally Mitchell made a solid start to his 200m campaign running 22.41s in the
heats to finish 2 nd and qualify for the final later in the day. He then ran 22.45 to finish an agonising
4 th in the final in some excellent company. Andrew Baird was representing the club in the 400m,
finishing 6 th in his heat (53.03s) but unfortunately not progressing to the semi-finals. Moving to the
field events, Hannah Henderson was 5 th in the hammer throwing 38.68m which I believe to be a PB –
great effort Hannah! In the pole vault, Sara Barbour was dominant taking the gold medal and
championship title with a 3.60m effort, huge congratulations to Sara and her support team.
In the summer leagues, there have been some changes at the top end of the tables once again. Ellie
Anderson maintains her lead at the top of the ladies table with 90 points, but Sasha I’Anson now
moves up to 2 nd with 69 points, knocking Lynsey O’Connor down to 3 rd with 67. In the men’s table
Jonathon Downey now joins Colin Anderson at the top of the table with 79 points apiece. Neil Todd
sits in 3 rd with 66 points.

In both leagues there is still opportunity for changes at the sharp end – Summer league tables (3)
competition is definitely heating up! The next two events scheduled are the Marymass 10k next
week and Club Champs on Sunday the 3 rd of September. For club champs there is the option of 5
events for U20 upwards (3000m, 800m, 200m, javelin and high jump) but please note that even if
you choose to do an extra race, only 2 runs will count for the overall prizes – we want everyone to
complete two runs, a jump and a throw. If anyone is looking for some coaching prior to the event
please let one of your captains or your coach know and a practice session can be arranged. We
would love to see a big turnout of seniors again this year – it really is a great club day out with the
emphasis on fun and team bonding, and if you ever thought about having a go at track and field this
is the perfect opportunity!