East District Cross Country Championship: Cupar
December 8th, 2008Gala Harriers headed across to Fife for the East District Cross Country Championships on Saturday under glorious blue skies and crisp but clear conditions, which were clearly to suit some younger runners.
The destination was Cupar and the courses were stubble fields with not too many hills, unlike the lung busters of a fortnight ago and the ground was hard and good for racing. Up for grabs were East District representative places for Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park XC in January 09 and there will have been some useful markers laid down by the club’s junior squad in advance of the selection process.
The 2 mile Under 13 girls were represented by Kerry Sandilands and Alison Brown who both ran superbly, beating runners from far larger clubs and posting individual times of 16 minutes 10 seconds (10th place) and 17.12 (16th place) respectively. Had there been one more Gala girl in this category, this could have translated in to a real team medal hope.
Rowan Marr was the sole club representative in the U13 boys and, spurred on in the last 800 metres to throw off the third placed runner, sped to a fabulous silver medal in tremendous style without once looking behind him – something that his coaches have been working hard on!
The Under 15 girls were not to be outdone and picked up the silver medal in their team race with an impressive gold medal run by Alice Haining who covered the 2.75 miles in 19.29, with the other 2 counters for the medal place being the Jones twins, Hannah (12th in 21.31) and Emily (20th in 22.19). Also running really well was Lucy Morris (24th in 23.11), with Charlotte Brown (35th in 24.17), Martha Douglas (36th in 24.36) and Claire White (39th in 25.58) putting in gutsy performances.
Senior honours have been hard to come by this season but no-one could have tried harder than Graeme Murdoch who finished in a very satisfactory 24th in the senior men’s race in 37.47, followed by Euan Jardine (38.33), Alastair Laurie (45.53) Tony Lunn (46.14) Alistair Wright (49.10) and Magnus Inglis (50.29). This placed the team 14th overall, with a 15th team placing in the Masters category.
The ladies fared better in terms of team placing and came in as the 7th team overall, with great performances by Dianne Lauder who was 18th in 29.20, Katy Anderson, 24th in 30.29 and, making her comeback after an extended injury lay-off, Leanne Haining in 33.57 in 59th place out of 105 runners.
Next Sunday’s cross country action moves to Peebles, where the 3rd in the Borders XC series takes place at 11.30 for Juniors and 12 noon for Seniors on 14th December.
Graeme Murdoch Says:
Just wanted to say well done to the harriers who ran on Saturday, particularly the juniors who performed brilliantly and have the medals to prove it. Good to see complete teams in mens and womens races for the first time this season.