Gala’s Girls In the Medals again
October 8th, 2005The ladies young and old did Gala Harriers proud on Saturday, at the East District Cross Country Relays. The races were held in perfect running conditions around the parkland and woods of Corstorphine Hill in Edinburgh. First race of the day was the young females event, with Alice Haining leading by example as she stormed home, in the fastest time of the day, to hand over to Emily Douglas in first place. Emily was running in her first championship race and she ran a strong second leg to hand over to Gillian Inglis in third place. Gillian was running against girls much older than herself but she pulled out all the stops to overtake the second placed team with 800 metres to go and bring the girls home in an excellent second place.
Unfortunately for the girls there was to be disappointment as they were disqualified over a registration technicality and they did not receive the silver medals they deserved. However, judging by this form it will be gold medals next year for the girls.
Murray Lemon ran the first leg for GalaÔøΩ??s young male athletes and put in a fine performance to hand over to Cammy Fair in 12th place. Cameron continues to show good form and ran a good time to hold onto 12th spot and hand on to Iain Frater. Iain was up against some strong U17 runners and found his first district race a good learning experience but he had to be content with finishing in 18th place overall.
There was another tremendous show from the ladies ÔøΩ??AÔøΩ?? team, which saw them pick up the bronze medal for their efforts.
Tish Affleck produced an excellent run in the first leg to hand over to Fiona Dalgleish in 7th place. Fiona stuck in hard to pick up one more place before she handed over to Dianne Lauder.
Dianne had lots to do with the nearest runner over a hundred metres in front of her, she produced a great run to pick off the next three runners and bring the harriers home in third place. The ÔøΩ??BÔøΩ?? and ÔøΩ??CÔøΩ?? teams also acquitted themselves well, with Leanne Haining, Eileen Nicol and ladies captain Katy Anderson finishing13th in the ÔøΩ??BÔøΩ?? team and Margot Crosbie, Melanie Goodson and Julie Anderson finishing a creditable 18th from the 30 teams which started.
It was the usual story of late call offs and injuries for the menÔøΩ??s team but there were some fine performances from some of the younger runners in the club as a result, especially Rory Methven and Ewan Lindores, with Rory recording the fastest time of 13.03 over the 4Km course. The ÔøΩ??AÔøΩ?? team of Ron Logan, Graeme Murdoch, Rory Methven and John Borthwick, finished 17th, with the ÔøΩ??BÔøΩ?? team of Robin Murray, John Cairns, Graham Pogson and Steve Gillan, finishing 30th.
The ÔøΩ??CÔøΩ?? team was led off by Davy Darroch, Malky Gowans next and then Ewan Lindores, who picked up ten places on his leg, handing over to the ever green Jack Knox to bring their team home in 37th place from the 58 which lined up at the start.
