Weekend UK Wide Round-UP
March 10th, 2008A varied weekend of athletics saw junior and senior Gala Harriers in action up and down the UK. On Saturday, both the English and Scottish Schools Cross Country Championships were held across in Irvine and down in Liverpool, with young Harriers Kerri Bonnar and Alice Haining representing Gala Academy and Hannah Jones, the North of England schools.
Irvine was blustery and cold and the terrain was undulating grassland, a tough 3 kilometre challenge for the 14 and 15 year old girls’ race, in which Kerri and Alice lined up amongst the 198 entries from all over Scotland. Kerri did very well to finish within the top third of the field in 66th place and Alice, coming back strongly to her original form was just pipped to first postion by a matter of seconds, finishing in a magnificent second place in 12.05 minutes.
Liverpool’s Sefton Park in contrast offered more hospitable running conditions for the finals of the English Schools XC, with a mammoth field of almost 350 runners in Hannah’s race creating bottlenecks and crush points throughout the 2 ½ mile circuit. Hannah, who had never run with so many competitors nevertheless thoroughly enjoyed the experience and finished 201st overall. Well done to all these young Harriers.
Sunday saw the Bank of Scotland Talent Development Camp for the East of Scotland at Meadowbank, and rubbing shoulders with some celebrities from the world of athletics, including sprinter Craig Pickering was 15 year old Harrier Emily Douglas, who trained in the afternoon with the100 metre star after being put through her paces with a range of speed and distance tests in the morning.
And a few hundred miles north, on a chilly and windy course around Inverness, Katy Anderson was slicing an amazing 5 minutes off her half marathon time of 1 hour 25 minutes. This is the first event in Scottish Athletics’ road race Grand Prix and Katy’s result is all the more impressive as she raced in a field of over 1500 runners and was 8th lady home and 5th in her age group.
Also running in Inverness was Harrier Derek Fraser who completed the course in 1.36.16, 227th overall and 30th in his age group (V45+), some way off his sub 1.20 best but heralding a welcome return to competition. His son Jack came 7th in the Fun Run.
Next weekend, Harriers mix it on the streets of Edinburgh for the city’s half marathon.
