Around 500 girls, boys, ladies and men lined up for a series of races at the West District Cross Country Championship on Saturday 6th December and for the second time this season Irvine Royal Academy provided a fine cross-country course in blazing sun shine.
Our young athletes did well in the age group races, the top performance coming from Ewan Murray finishing 24th in the U15 boys event.
Unusually for this season, circumstances dictated that we had no senior ladies and a slightly reduced senior men's participation from the club, however, that is to be expected at this busy time of year and there was no lack of enthusiasm from those who were able to take part.
Eleven Harriers joined the field of around 200 in the Senior men's 10km race, the final event on the programme. Conditions were firm underfoot on this well drained "links" course with only a few very slippery bits in the shade. At the front, Shettleston's Eritrean trio eventually broke away from the field but their third place runner was by no means guaranteed that position as he was chased hard by a group of promising young Scots.
Calderglen's promising young Scot, Stuart Gibson, ran very strongly throughout, finishing 26th overall in 33:47. Jamie McMonagle and Alan Cullie demonstrated their continuing return to form with times of 38:07 and 38:39 respectively. Eddie Reid re-introduced his old habit of going missing during a run; however this time he only disappeared from the official results. He timed himself at 39:34 but seems not to have been captured by the race officials crossing the line, a fact that would have had some impact on the team position with the first 6 for each club to count. Ian Rae is definitely on the way back from injury, running a strong 41:23. Jim Holmes and David Herbertson had a race long battle with Jim coming out on top in 42:06 ahead of David's 42:16. Graham Lindsay was close on their heels for much of the 3 lap race but faded a little in the last lap to finish in 43:17. William Bell made his cross-country debut and looked comfortable in a time of 46:16. Chas Steven and Russell Couper, both struggling a bit at the moment, finished in 53:25 and 56:21 respectively but both ran steadily throughout and felt the benefit of a run on a fine, sunny day.
The Grand Prix has been updated and it remains tight at the top with yet another change in leader.
The fancy dress was of a very high standard at this afternoon's 4-mile Christmas Handicap. The fanciest dressed and eventual winner of the senior handicap was Mandy "Madge" Cullie, closely followed by young Euan Murray and Jamie "Santa" McMonagle. Fastest scratch time of the day was Martin "Robo" Duthie. Full results at the link below and some more photos, courtesy of Eddie.
