Senior Event Roundup 23 rd October 2023

We are now well and truly into the winter season, with a number of our senior athletes getting their
XC campaigns well underway. We have definitely been subjected to all of the weather so far, with
the worst of it undoubtedly at the West District Relays at Alexandria Park on the 7 th of October.
Conditions were on the challenging side, but this did not stop our ladies A team of Lynsey O’Connor,
Laura Haggarty and Sasha I’Anson finishing a fine 10 th place in good company. Bethany Ross and Izzy
Caufield also opened their XC accounts for the year, both having good runs as a partial team. Well
done to all! For the men, the A team of Craig Ferguson, Jamie Phillips, Nick Carter and Ross
McNaught finished 30 th overall, whilst the B team of Stewart McRoberts, Robert Lindsay, Colin
Glencorse and Murray McDonald completed this muddy and hilly course in 51 st overall – great start
to the season!

Also on the 7 th , Logan Mitchell was in Hull for the Hammer Circle Reunion event, where he threw
49.34m in the hammer to win his section. A little further afield, Sunday the 8 th saw Brian Darroch
complete the Chicago Marathon in 4:58:24 – well done Brian, we hope you had a great experience!

Wednesday the 11 th saw some of our younger athletes get what will probably be their last events at
the Emirates prior to the refurbishment at the Scottish Student Athletics opening match. For the
ladies, Laura Jedrusiak (representing Glasgow Uni) ran another 800m PB for 2 nd in 2:26.50, whilst
Victoria McDowall (GU) was 9 th in the 1500m in 6:28.19. Laura and Isla Raeburn were part of the
winning 4 x 400m team for Glasgow Uni, and Isla was also 3 rd in the long jump (4.7m) and 7 th in the
high jump (1.50m). Hannah Henderson (GU) was 6 th in the shot (8.05m). For the men, Ally Mitchell
was representing Glasgow Caledonian and was 2 nd in both heat and semi final of the 60m before
taking the win in the final in 7.11s. In the 200m, Lewis Tidy (GU) was 1 st overall in the heats and
Andrew Baird (GU) was 3 rd . In the final Lewis took the win in 23.09 whilst Andrew was 4 th in 23.99s.
Both athletes were part of the winning 4x200m team also, and Andrew was 8 th in the 400m heats in
54.31s. Our athletes are definitely doing their university clubs proud which is great to see.

Sunday the 15 th was bright and fresh – perfect XC weather just in time for the Ayrshire relay
championships held on the Irvine Moor. We had a really good turnout for this one, with 3 ladies
teams and 6 men’s teams. For the ladies, the A team of Sasha I’Anson, Amanda Bryden and Laura
Jedrusiak claimed the bronze medal in an exciting tussle with the Troon ladies. Our B team of Jacqui
Sandler, Eilidh Ballantyne and Lynne McCaffrey finished 8 th , and our partial C team of Jackie Duncan
and Amy Alexander also had great runs on the day. Meanwhile, the men were on fire with the A
team of Craig Ferguson, Jamie Phillips, Connor Scobie and Jonathon Downey romping to victory to
bring the trophy back to Kilmarnock for a second year in a row. The B team of Ross Granger, Scott
Masterton, Jamie Nix and Mark Alexander were 4 th , with the C team of Ross McNaught, Greig
Glendinning, Liam Fernyhough and Josh Raeburn next across the line in 5 th . The D team of Nick
Carter, Ryan Goode, Colin Glencorse and Murray McDonald were 9 th , The E team of Scott Lyden,
Stewart McRoberts, Russell Duncan and Ken Monaghan were 12 th and our incomplete team of Paul
Lafferty, Charlie McNulty and Gary Martin also all had great runs. It was fantastic to see so many
new and returning faces at this event and to see the club so well represented – let’s replicate this at
the rest of the events this year!

The XC train keeps rolling, and the weekend just past saw the National XC relays held at
Cumbernauld House. With extreme weather in the week prior and some very sketchy forecasts
there was some concern from your fair weather ladies captain, but we did not need to worry as the
weather was pretty much perfect – the conditions underfoot were typical Cumbernauld! The ladies
were first out, we only had the one team but Sasha I’Anson, Laura Haggarty, Amanda Bryden and

Izzy Caufield made it count, finishing a good 28 th out of 62 teams. The men’s A team were also 28 th
(out of 100 senior teams), with Jamie Phillips, Craig Ferguson Ross Granger and Owen Walpole
making it look easy out there! Our B team of Nick Carter, Jamie Nix, Murray McDonald and James
Wales were 58 th overall, and our partial C team of Scott Lyden, Colin Glencorse and Mark Henderson
were 82 nd . Great running from all, and again great to see some new and returning faces to the
squads on the day.

On Sunday the 22 nd , two of our ladies completed the Women’s 10k in Glasgow with Vicki Deane
finishing 92 nd overall in 51:59 and Bernice Amos finishing 126 th (and 6 th V55) in 53:24. The purpose of
the women’s 10k is to ‘provide a platform for women across Scotland and beyond to take control of
their health and make a positive change’ – this is particularly apt in the week that Scottish Athletics
have been focusing on menopause awareness Scottish Athletics Menopause Awareness. Kilmarnock
Harriers are pledging to be a ‘Menopause Friendly’ club – if this is something that you have a keen
interest in helping to promote awareness of then please speak to us.

Looking forward to the next few weeks, entries are already closed for National Short Course but we
will be looking for names for the following events soon:

– Ayrshire XC Championships 11 th November @ Rozelle
– West League XC 18 th November @ Kilmarnock
– West District XC champs 2 nd December @ Strathaven

League tables will be updated shortly and published once Short Course has taken place and we are
hoping to announce the Summer winners shortly – please submit your Parkrun/HM/Marathon times
ASAP if you have not already done so.