Senior Race Round Up 4th July 2022

How can it possibly be July already!?  Roon the Toon feels like a lifetime ago, but our senior and U20 athletes have not let up at all in the second half of June into July and there is a whole new batch of good news and outstanding results to report this week.

First off we stay close to home, with the second of the Ayrshire Open Graded series held at the AAA on the 14^th of June.  Our U20 and seniors were out in force, full results can be found here as there were too many performances to list individually but special mentions should go to Craig Ferguson who won the 3000m in 9:26.1, Josh Smith who ran the best 200m time of the meet (23:74), Shona McBean-Kyle who won her heat in the 200m, Jonathon Downey who ran a scorching 2:01.1 in the 800m for the fastest time of the meet and Sarah Barbour who topped the table in the pole vault clearing 3.50m.  Huge well done to all of the athletes taking part in this event, the next one will be held on Friday the 22^nd of July and entries are now open on EntryCentral.

On Friday the 17^th, a handful of hungry Harriers travelled up to Pollok Park to race the Brian Goodwin Memorial 10k – more commonly referred to as the Burger and Beer 10k.  First back for the Harriers to get in line for the food and drink was Calum Haswell who absolutely smashed his 10k PB in 42:32 – great running Cal!  Next home was Russell Duncan in 45:24, followed by Sasha I’Anson in 48:10 and Jackie Duncan in 55:44.  Sasha was also 2^nd U20 lady overall, Jackie was 5^th V55 lady and Russell was 8^th V60 man so a great night’s racing from all.

Sunday the 19^th saw more racing in Glasgow – this time the Men’s Health 10k at Glasgow Green.  John Speirs was first home in 35 minutes dead, with Calum Haswell next in 43:35, brother Ross Haswell in 57:29 and Brian Keachie in 60:38.  No free burgers at this one, but another good set of results for the club!

A little further afield on the same day, three of our U20 athletes were in Aberdeen for the combined league match.  The travel was worth it, with Ally Mitchell finishing 2^nd in the 100m in 11:05, Josh Smith close behind for 5^th in 11:46 and Brooke Dunlop finishing a really close 2^nd in the long jump (5.18m).  Ally and Brooke were then back in action on Friday the 24^th at the OG meeting at Livingston, with Ally 3^rd in the 100m in 11:32 and Brooke finishing 6^th overall in a mixed javelin pool with a throw of 28.22m and then 3^rd in the long jump with 5.04m – great job guys.

On the 26^th of June a sole Harrier battled the horrible conditions to take part in the inaugural ‘Skirt the Skeith’ 12k multi terrain race at Dalry.  Our very own Robin Bourne completed the course in 1:14:33 and was 10^th MV40-49 – well done Robin, it looked utterly miserable out there!

Meanwhile in stark contrast to the conditions at home, U20 athlete Jonathon Downey was facing the heat in Italy.  Representing Scotland U20 in the WMRA International Youth Cup for hill running, Jonathon was part of the team who claimed 7^th overall in some exceptionally strong company, finishing 30^th individually.  Huge congratulations to Jonathon and his support and coaching team, what a great experience to represent Scotland at this level.

Back on the roads on Wednesday the 29^th, John Speirs headed up to Clydebank for the SVHC 5k race.  This is known as a fast and flat course, and so it transpired for John who ran a fine PB of 16:50.  Not content with this, he then also participated in the Blast Scottish Mile road race on Sunday, recording 4:52.6 for third V40 overall.  John has also had news this week that he has been selected to represent the RAF in the Inter Services Half Marathon championship at the Great North Run later this year – hard work pays off!

Sunday the 3^rd was also the final match of the CSSAL League at Scotstoun.  We went into this meeting at the top of the league, but with holidays/other commitments/races it was always going to be tough this weekend to field a full team.  Kudos to the athletes who stepped up to the plate – we had some new faces to this year’s CSSAL squad which is great to see, and there were a number of athletes who competed in events far outside their usual remit – I’m looking at you Douglas Dickson in particular, throwing discus for valuable points!  It’s great to see our athletes pulling together for the club, and from the provisional results it would appear that subject to scrutiny we have managed to top the league! This is a massive achievement particularly in our first year in the top division against some big clubs, and is a testimony to the athletes, officials, volunteers, supporters, coaches and of course Billy and Suzanne for facilitating it all – the work that goes on in the background to make this happen is huge.  Results are available on the Harriers Facebook page.

Looking forward to the next couple of weeks, there will be a contingent of Masters athletes heading to Dundee this weekend to contest the Scottish Outdoors Masters Championships – hopefully we will see lots of medals heading back to Kilmarnock.   Next Wednesday (13^th July) sees the return of the Cairn Table hill race at Muirkirk with a few spaces still left (on EntryCentral).   Friday the 22^nd sees our next Open Graded meeting as previously mentioned, and then Wednesday the 27^th sees the next of our summer points races – the ever popular Kilmaurs 5k.  This is closely followed on Sunday the 31^st with the Cumbrae 10 mile race.  Also, watch this space re. the return of the Rowallan Rose Bowl!