WEST DISTRICT RELAY CHAMPS 2015

CROSS COUNTRY SEASON KICKS OFF WITH A BANG.

The weekend (Sunday 11/10/15) saw Hamilton Racecourse host the opening Cross Country race of the traditional Winter Season as a number of the country’s top athletes lined up for the West District Relay Championships.

Happily, in the huge field there were a number of Kilmarnock Harriers taking the short trip and an impressive number of the Junior Section were involved to start the day’s proceedings.

With a number of excellent performances from the Clubs younger athletes under the belt, it then fell to the Senior Women to take centre stage and after a week of tireless work behind the scenes Captain Paula Wilson was in the fortunate position of being able to field 3 full teams of 3 athletes per team, which was one of the largest turnouts from any Club on the day.

First up and running for their respective teams were Colleen Tait, Michelle Goldie, and sprinter Anna Walker who was admirably taking a huge jump outside of her comfort zone distance, and the trio passed over to their team-mates to put themselves in fine fettle for the rest of the race.

When all was said and done at the end of the race, the Killie A Team had secured a fine 12^th position and all the girls can be happy with some early season Cross Country under their belts to set themselves up brilliantly for the Winter.

Killie Women Times over the 4K Course were –

A Team (12^th) Colleen Tait 16.53, Jacqueline McConnell 18.49, Bethany Ross 17.53

B Team (23^rd) Michelle Goldie 20.11, Paula Wilson 20.06, Laura Carruthers 21.12

C Team (26^th) Anna Walker 22.46, Chloe Adams 21.41, Janice Miller 27.55

The final race of the day was the Senior Men, and Captain Cammy Wilson had 13 athletes to choose from. On this occasion the Club decided to mix it up a bit and field a Veteran Team with the feeling being that they may place highly in this category and so it was to prove, albeit agonisingly.

First up was Gordon Reid, Ross Connelly, John Parker and having an excellent run in his Cross Country debut in a solo team, Stephen Emerson.

Gordon Reid has had a fantastic pedigree over the years and has gradually been getting back to some decent form, and had arguably the best Kilmarnock run on the day to put the Vets Team in a competitive 5^th place at the end of the traditional tough first leg.

Robert Lindsay and – fresh from last weekend Marathon heroics – Connell Drummond kept Kilmarnock in contention for an excellent Masters Medal after 3 legs, and with anchor runner Scott Martin taking over in 4^th place the Club were 43 seconds behind Garscube.

Making up ground all the time, the finishing line came too soon for Killie, and 4 seconds was the difference between themselves and the Glasgow Club. Nevertheless, the Club can console themselves by the fact that 3 excellent teams were ahead of them and this ought to give themselves a bit of confidence.

Like their Female counterparts, all the Men had very decent runs, and the worthwhile exercise sets all Juniors and Seniors up for the weekends Ayrshire Championships which are being held in Kilmarnock.

Men Times for Killie over 4K were –

A Team (31^st) – Ross Connelly 15.22, Cameron Mackie 15.27, Scott Lyden 15.09, Stewart McRoberts 17.58

B Team (4^th Vets) – Gordon Reid 14.30, Robert Lindsay 14.36, Connell Drummond 14.45, Scott Martin 14.27

C Team (15^th Vets) – John Parker 16.38, Willie Duffy 18.27, Les McDerment 17.34, Alex McGhee 19.01

Solo Team – Stephen Emerson 17.23

Well done to all, and as a footnote the Captains and Club contacts will be taking names this week for the weekends Ayrshire Cross Country Champs.

(SCOTT MARTIN 11/10/15)