A Baltic Blast at Lauder
November 21st, 2004Lauder was the venue for the first race of the Eastern Borders Winter Cross Country Series on Sunday. Both clubs had complete teams, for a change and produced some fine individual performances. First Gala runner was John Borthwick, who finished a fine 33rd in a time of 28.40, over the five mile course, which was a good mixture of park and woodlands throughout.
Gala’s veteran’s team grouped well with all four counters finishing within 13 places of each other. Alastair Laurie led them home in 106th place in a time of 31.49, followed by Martin Clarke and Robin Murray, who had a wee sprint between themselves to the line, finishing 115th and 116th respectively in the same time of 32.16.
Alastair Wright, who was running his first cross country race for the club, put in a fine performance finishing just behind Martin and Robin in 119th place in a time of 32.21. Two more harriers running for the club for the first time were Graham Murdoch and Steven Gillan, who will surely improve over the season, when they buy some cross country shoes.
Graham finished a respectable 130th in a time of 32.52, with Steven close behind in 148th spot in a time of 33.48. Tommy Knox, Malky Gowans and David Darroch made up the last of the team, finishing 164th ,166th and 177th respectively from a total field of 230 runners.
The ladies team were led home by Tish Affleck, who finished 5th in her race in a time of 22.41 and is looking good for her return to international duty in a couple of weeks time. Fiona Dalgliesh worked her way steadily through the field of 48 runners to finish 22nd in 24.53 and she was followed in by Nicola Miekle who is showing some great form, to finish 26th in a time of 25.11.
The best performance of the day had to be young Alice Haining who stormed round the U11 course to beat everyone in the field of 107 boys and girls in a time of 6.42.
Alice’s brother James also had a fine run in the U13 race to finish 43rd from the 94 runners, with Gillian Inglis completing the junior turnout in the U15 girls race, finishing 20th in a field of 84 runners.
Continuing to impress is Euan Jardine who followed up on his excellent second place finish at last week’s Girvine Open XC race, with another second place finish at the Tinto Hill race on Saturday.
