Gala Harriers in National Cross Country Action
February 25th, 2004Perth was the venue on Saturday for the National XC Championships with
Gala Harriers running teams in both the men’s and women’s races While Liz
McColgan made it look like a jog in the park to pick up her first national
cross country title, the rest of the 106 strong field found the flat fast
course a much tougher race.
First harrier home was Kate Jenkins (23rd), running for her first claim
club Carnethy and helping them win the first team prize in a time of 29.18.
Close on Kate’s heals was Tish Affleck who ran well to finish 24th in a time
of 29.24, with Leanne Haining next in 41st spot in a time of 30.44. Laura
Howie finished strongly to take 55th place in a time of 30.44, with Eileen
Nicol completing the team in 72nd spot in a time of 33.27 and helping the
ladies team finish 8th on the day.
The men’s championship was a very close race with Glen Stewart only
breaking away from the leading pack with 400 metres to go to claim his
second national title in a time of 34.52. Euan Jardine was suffering from
the effects of a cold and didn’t feel he ran his best race this season but
he can take some comfort from the fact that his 87th place finish and time
of 39.15 was good enough to win the Will Lynsey trophy for first harrier in
the national championships.
Fergus Johnston finished very strongly to take 153rd place in a time of
41.34 with Neil Renton and Ron Logan fighting out a great personal battle to
finish 170th and 171st respectively. Neil and Ron like nothing better than a
lung bursting 100 metre sprint at the end of a hard 12km cross country race.
Making up the last two team places were Martin Clarke 197th (43.00) and
Alastair Laurie 267th (45.10), their efforts left Gala Harriers as 20th team
from the 410 runners taking part in the race.
