Senior Race Roundup 9th September 2022

It has been a super busy few weeks for our athletes once again as the summer season begins to
draw to a close and thoughts begin to turn towards the XC season. There have been a lot of races to
choose from, and as such we have results from all around Scotland in this report!
Opening the account for the Harriers on Saturday the 20 th of August was Andy Taylor who was 6 th
V60 at the Bute 10k in a time of 57:09. On the Sunday Colin Anderson headed east to take part in
the Forth Road Bridge 10k, where his 39:31 time was good enough for 8 th senior man. A little closer
to home, we had three athletes participating in the Paisley 10k. First home in blue and white was
Scott Martin in 38:40, followed by Brian McLure in 53:20 and Andy Taylor in his second race of the
weekend in 54:59 – well done all!

Friday the 26 th of August saw 7 Harriers head up to Pollok Park for the Bellahouston Harriers 10k.
This race is run within the confines of the park and is always popular! Scott Martin was once again
first Harrier home in 38:36 and 3 rd V50 – great to see you back racing Scott. He was followed in by
Alasdair Murray in 43:04, Nick Carter in 44:20 (I believe a PB – well done Nick!), Sasha I’Anson in
48:43, Lauren Little in 50:02, Andy Taylor in 52:21 and Ross Haswell in 57:09.
On the Saturday and Sunday (27 th & 28 th ) some of our U20 athletes travelled to Grangemouth for the
4J Scottish Athletics U20 Championships. We were very well represented with some excellent
performances across the board as previously reported on club social media including National
medals for Sarah Barbour, Lewis Tidy, Ally Mitchell, Hannah Henderson, and Maisie Hinks (who
stepped up to the U20 category for this event) – huge congratulations to all athletes who competed
at this event.

On Sunday the 28 th , John Speirs travelled to Dumfries to compete in the Doonhamer 10k where he
finished 1 st V45 and 5 th overall in 35:26 – well done John!
Tuesday the 30 th was the Shettleston Harriers Open Graded event at Crownpoint, where Charlie
McNulty (2:01.92), Jamie Nix (2:09.58), Laura Jedrusiak (2:33.63) and Jennifer Beattie (2:35.48)
competed over 800m and Jamie Philips represented the club in the 3000m (8:53.15).
This was one of the last outdoor events of the season, but Sunday the 4 th represented the end of the
outdoor season for the majority of our track and field athletes at the club’s annual Club
Championships. For those that are unfamiliar with the event, all athletes participate in a range of
events (generally 2 runs, a jump and a throw). The scoring method for this event is complicated and
time consuming for such a large number of athletes so at time of writing the overall results are not
available, however there were a number of excellent performances from our U20 and senior
athletes and numbers were fantastic with quite a few seniors having their first attempt at this sort of
event – I’m sure all would agree that it was a really fun day!
For our U20 ladies, competition was hot throughout the day with Isla Raeburn, Hannah Burn and
Laura Jedrusiak battling for points across the 4 events. Particular highlights for these ladies were a
13.09 100m for Hannah, a 9.32m shot throw for Isla and an 800 PB for Laura in 2:31.84 but all three
were strong across the events and it will be interesting to see how the final points work out!
Our U20 men were out in force with 7 completing at least some of the events. Ally Mitchell was
fastest over 100m with an 11:04, threw furthest in the shot (9.44m) and jumped 6.20m in the long
jump, however it was Jonathon Downey who came to the fore in the 800m, finishing well ahead of
the field in 2:05.49 only hours after a 9:22.8 3000m. Some really excellent performances here from
all of our U20 men, and the sprinters also added some entertainment to the proceedings at the end

of the day in the relay race where they gave the youngsters a decent head start but proceeded to
dominate the race to the delight of the spectators!

For the senior women a total of 10 came forward for at least one event which is great to see as
historically we have struggled with numbers. Lynsey O’Connor had a fantastic run in the 3000m
(11:15.1) first thing before heading off to compete in her tennis finals. In the 100m, 800m and long
jump Laura Haggarty came out on top, with Natalie Sharp throwing nearly 1m further than her
nearest competitor to top the shot put leader board. It was fantastic to see so many new faces, well
done all.

12 senior men came forward to compete in at least one event, and again it would be very difficult to
pick the overall winner. Jamie Nix finished first in the 100m and long jump and was only beaten
0.05s in the 800m, Craig Ferguson had a huge 3000m PB in 9:11.0 and won the 800 in 2:09.61 and
David Sherrington topped the shot put with a 7.44m throw. Across the board there were some great
performances, with a lot of athletes stepping well out of their comfort zones to take part so huge
congratulations to all who came and had a go – same again next year?
Also on the 4 th of September was the NAAC 10k – 10 Harriers completed this race in somewhat
interesting conditions (wouldn’t be NAAC without ALL the weather). Taking the win by a large
margin was Martin Brown who finished in 32:29. He was followed home by Colin Anderson (39:30),
Michael Corson (2 nd V60 in 42:19), Lauren Little (51:23), Andy Taylor (51:24), Izzy Caufield (3 rd U20 in
52:24), Sarah Rowan (53:39), Robin Bourne (57:04), Brian Darroch (57:45) and Catriona Hastings
(1:03:03). Well done to all and especially the prize winners!

To round up this block of races, Thursday the 8 th saw the Valley Dash take place – full report and
results can be found here. It was fantastic to see some new faces in among the usual suspects and
despite it being a bit of a wet and miserable night everyone seemed to enjoy it (no doubt the
fabulous buffet provided by Alisdair Hood helped massively – no stale sandwiches and greasy
sausage rolls on Alisdair’s watch!). Huge thanks to all who volunteered at this event and the Club
Championships – we could not hold these events without these people giving up their time.
Finally, a bit of summer league admin! League tables will be updated with the club champs results
as soon as they become available, but they have been updated for now to reflect the Valley Dash.
Extending his lead now at the top of the men’s table is Colin Anderson (107 points) who is now 8
points ahead of Mark Lyden, and David Sherrington and Michael Corson are nipping at Mark’s heels
on 93 and 92 points respectively. Kirsty Mackay continues to dominate the ladies table with 138
points as it stands, with Sasha I’Anson her closest competitor with 109 points. Louise Baillie
currently holds 3 rd place with 85 points. Remember that the prizes will be decided by your best 10
scores ONLY – once Parkrun/HM/Marathon times are added we will publish the final listings based
on your 10 best performances. Check out the table here – summer points league (2)

Look out for an announcement regarding the winter league in the coming days – we will be looking
for names for West District XC soon! And best of luck to all of our U20 and senior athletes
competing at the National Track relays at Grangemouth on Saturday.