Senior Race Roundup 5 th March 2023

It is incredible to believe that we are in March already, but the blue and white train just keeps
gathering momentum as the year goes on and yet again there are a wide range of fabulous results to
report!

We start on the weekend of the 18 th and 19 th of February with some of our U20 athletes at the
Scottish U20 age group Championships held at the Emirates. Across the two days we saw some
really good results coming through, with the highlight a fantastic Gold for Logan Mitchell in the Shot
Putt (13.2m). Ally Mitchell had a really busy weekend, running through heats and semi finals at both
60m and 200m to contest both finals. For the 60m he was 3 rd in the heat (7.27s), 4 th in the semi final
(7.25s) and 6 th in the final in 7.18s. In the 200m he was 2 nd in the heat (23.34s), 3 rd in the semi final
(22.49s) and a very credible 5 th in the final in 22.82s. For the ladies, Brooke Dunlop was 4 th in the
60m hurdles in 9.62s and Isla Raeburn was 7 th in the long jump (4.90m) and 6 th in the high jump
(1.48m). Some excellent performances in good company, well done team!

Also that weekend, Laura Haggarty and Jennifer Beattie travelled to Sheffield for the BMAF indoors
championships. On the Saturday Laura took complete control of her 800m race to take the gold in
fine style in 2:22.65. Jennifer was 4 th in her age group 800m in a season best of 2:31.99. On the
Sunday, Laura once again threw down the gauntlet and ran a perfectly executed 1500m to take her
second gold of the weekend in 4:59.92 – fantastic running Laura! Jennifer competed the 400m on
the Sunday afternoon and ran an indoor PB of 67.42 to collect the silver medal.

A little closer to home and not having the luxury of a warm indoor track, we had 10 hardy Harriers
turn out for the Hillbilly 10k trail race at Dalmellington. I’m told that the course is very muddy and
very hilly and I will take everyone’s word for it! First back was Jonathon Downey in 3 rd overall in
40:37. He was followed home by Ross McNaught (45:36), Josh Raeburn (46:59), Neil Todd (47:32),
Gordon Sandler (56:47), Lynne McCaffrey (61:05), Jacqui Sandler (63:59), Erin Buchanan (66:39),
Robin Bourne (64:34) and Catriona Hastings (69:10). Hats off to all of you, I saw the pictures and
videos and it looked seriously tough!

Speaking of tough, Saturday the 25 th of February saw the return of the Lindsays Scottish Athletics
National XC championships. With an unusually dry few weeks in the run up to this event, conditions
were the best that have been seen for a long time, but that’s not to say that it was any easier than
usual. This event is a true test of endurance and is always extremely competitive and so it was to be
this year. Starting with the senior men, we had a total of 7 athletes competing on the day. What we
lacked in numbers we made up with quality, with two athletes finishing in the top 70 this year.
Martin Brown was first home in 65 th place in 35:52, with Craig Ferguson finishing in 70 th place in
36:02. John Speirs was next back in 40:51 (John was also 11 th V45), then Ross McNaught (43:30),
Connell Drummond (44:25), Neil Todd (46:44) and Nick Carter (48:04). The team finished a very
credible 28 th out of 42 complete teams. Unfortunately we were not able to field a ladies team, but
club chairwoman Amanda Bryden did it for the girls finishing in 160 th place in 50:07 which was a
course PB for Amanda – well done! For the U20s we only had one athlete competing also – our ever
smiling Sasha I’Anson took on the 7k course to finish a fine 30 th place in 32:36. Huge well done to
everyone who took part on the day!

Sunday the 26 th saw a very early start for our Masters athletes Laura Haggarty and Jennifer Beattie
who were on their travels once more – this time representing team Scotland at the England Masters
AA Inter Area Challenge held at Lee Valley in London. Laura opened the track account for team
Scotland in fine style, once more dominating the race to take maximum points and a fine PB of

4:53.55. Jennifer then ran a season’s best in the 400 (66.98) to finish 2 nd and was also 2 nd in the
800m in 2:32.19 again gaining some good points for the team event overall.

Thursday the 2 nd of March saw Jonathon Downey competing at the Scottish Schools XC at Hopetoun
Estate, where an 11 th place in 21:00 was good enough to secure his selection for the West team at
inter districts XC at Loughborough later this month.

Good news has also reached us this week that our very own Roddy Pugh was the winner of the
MV65 Scottish Hill Racing Championship 2022, winning all 4 of his races (Clachnaben, Stuc A’Chroin,
Trotternish Ridge and Durisdeer). Apologies Roddy that this was not reported sooner – what an
achievement!

Saturday the 4 th of March saw a perfect spring day, and a total of 22 Harriers pull on their vests to
compete at the Allan Scally relays. This is always a popular event and it is easy to see why – it is very
well organised and the course is fast and flat, leading to some excellent racing. Our men’s A team
(Martin Brown, Craig Ferguson, Jamie Philips and Jonathon Downey) all had excellent runs (all under
16 mins) resulting in an overall 9 th place finish against some of the strongest teams in Scotland –
great running guys! We had too many runners to go through the entire result (for full results click
here) but I am aware of PBs from Lorna Baird (17:58), Amanda Bryden (20:55), Ross Granger (17:06),
Matthew Monachello (17:35), Craig Ferguson (15:42), Neil Todd (18:42), Nick Carter (20:21) and I
believe Callum Riddell (21:14). Some really outstanding times there but huge congratulations to
everyone who took part – I’m sure you’ll all agree it’s a great club day out!

The Allan Scally relays was also the last opportunity to gain points for the winter league – watch out
for a separate announcement of all the winners.

Our final result this week comes from the other side of the world, where John Speirs completed the
Tokyo marathon in 2 hours 48 minutes – huge congratulations John!

We are still looking for names for the 4 stage/6 stage relays on the 25 th of March – entries close for
this on Thursday so any names to Jennifer or Robert please. Going forward, we will be announcing
the races for the Summer League very shortly – do not expect there to be too many changes from
last year, though if you have any constructive feedback or suggestions we would love to hear from
you about it!