Seniors Round Up 17th October 2021

It has been another busy weekend for the senior athletes, and the good news stories continue to roll
in from road and XC events this week!

Russell Duncan kicked off the weekend with a really solid performance at the Glasgow University 5
mile road race at Garscube on Saturday morning. The target was a Silver Standard time, and it was
mission accomplished with 5s to spare in 36:55 – great run on a tricky course Russell!

In the afternoon all focus switched back to the XC field, this time for Ayrshire Relays at the AAA. An
unusually dry September and early October meant that the course was a lot less muddy than usual,
and as a result there were some really fast times posted throughout the event.

A total of 11 U20/senior ladies and 12 U20/senior men completed the course, with Martin Brown
posting the fastest overall time of the day in 11:45; and Kilmarnock ladies Laura Haggarty, Kara
McKenzie-Tait and Lynsey O’Connor posting the top 3 ladies times of the day in 13:51, 14:03 and
14:56 respectively.

For the teams it was a clear win for the A team ladies (Laura, Kara and Morgan McBurnie) who
absolutely dominated the ladies event for a well-deserved gold medal and their names on the trophy
for 2021. The ladies B team of Lynsey O’Connor, Amanda Bryden and Jennifer Beattie earned
themselves a bronze medal, and the U20 team of Eilidh Ballantyne, Victoria McDowall and Izzy
Caufield had a strong run to finish 6 th overall. It was also great to see Kerry Stewart back on the line,
and Gillian Wishart taking on her first team XC event – well done ladies!

The men’s A team had a tough task against a strong Irvine A team, and despite great runs from
Martin, John Speirs, Jamie Nix and Craig Ferguson they eventually had to settle for a hard earned
silver medal. The B team of Nathan Smith, David Anderson, Alastair Murray and Nick Carter were 6 th
and the C team of Paul Lafferty, Stuart Nibloe, Graeme Cairns and Les McDerment were 11 th.

Back to the roads and across the border on Sunday! Stewart McAllister made the journey south to
York to run the Yorkshire Marathon, finishing in 4:40:04 – well done Stewart, great effort.

Next on the agenda is National XC relays this weekend, we are also now looking for names for
National Short Course XC at Lanark (intention to run to Robert or Jennifer by Wednesday at the very
latest please, SA number is required). Alternatively if mud isn’t your thing then consider Rubys 5k
race at the AAA on the 31 st of October www.entrycentral.com/rubys – a great race for a great cause!