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Action over the past few weekends has been snow-affected but this past weekend saw Gala athletes competing indoors at Kelvin Hall and over the country at Spittal in much milder weather in what was the final leg in the Borders Winter Cross Country series on Sunday.

In recent weeks and In a first for the Northumberland leg of the English Schools qualifiers, a Scottish country house was the venue for the initial round of the championships held at Paxton House on 16 January. Young Gala Harriers Hannah and Emily Jones ran exceptional races over the muddy, treacherous 3.5 km course to come 1st and 2nd in their age group, with Alison Brown also running superbly to come 1st in her category also.

A week later the second leg was held in equally muddy conditions at Ponteland with many a shoe lost without trace but all three girls competed extremely well to finish 4th, 7th and 5th in their respective age groups, qualifying them for the Northern Schools championships, which were unfortunately cancelled because of the weather. The girls must wait to see if their performances to date are enough to make the English schools finals in Loughborough in late March.

And it was more of the club’s younger athletes who have been training hard at the track over the winter who took the M8 to Glasgow for the Bank of Scotland indoor championships on Saturday and Sunday. Competition from clubs up and down the UK and especially from Ireland was fierce and the Gala youngsters did well to hold their own and achieve a high level of performance, including many personal bests.

In a huge field, Martha Douglas and Annabel Hughes did well to both come 2nd in their heats of the U15 girls 200m in 28.84 seconds and 29.04 respectively but just missed out on the final. In the U13 girls’ 60 m heats, Jo Marr scampered home in 4th in 9.41 with a very creditable run, while over the same distance in the U15s Demi Yorke came 2nd in her first heat (8.26),and 3rd in the semi final (8.34), just missing out on a place in the final by 3/100ths of a second despite the PB. Her fellow athletes in this race, Annabel Hughes and Martha Douglas also ran the best they’d ever done, coming an impressive 3rd and 4th in their heats in 8.67 and 8.73.

Demi has stepped an age category since last year and in the long jump it was particularly noticeable that she was competing against much bigger girls but she jumped well to get through the cut and came fifth in the final with a jump of 4.60m.

For the boys, Rowan Marr looked similarly diminutive as he lined up for the U15 800m but he came 3rd in his heat in 2.28.04 and sharpened himself up for the next day’s action on the country. Dan Purves, who has recently started training with the Harriers competed well in the U15 boys’1500m, coming 2nd in his heat and 4th in the final in 4.46.27.

Sunday saw more action on the indoor circuit with Craig Gillan and Paul Ferguson competing in the U17 200m and 60m events. Craig moved smoothly through his heat coming second in 24.45, shaved 1/100th of a second off in the semi final to come 3rd and then couldn’t quite keep up the momentum but came a very creditable 5th in the final in 24.66. Paul again came 2nd in his heat in 25.28 and, despite running faster in the semi came 5th and just missed out on the final.

Both Craig and Paul were in action in the U17 60m and again both ran well to come 2nd in their respective heats in 7.72 and 7.65. Again a few hundredth of a seconds kept them out of the final, after having come 5th and 6th in the semi in 7.77 and 7.66.

Emily Douglas and Sophie Elder were competing in the same events for the U17 women, with Emily making it through both the heats and the semi in the 200m in times of 27.35 and 27.65, coming a well-earned 5th in the final in 27.77. Sophie breezed through her heat, winning it in 27.80 but missed out on the final with a 4th place in the semi in 28.19. In the 60m, Emily placed 3rd in her heat in 8.23 but, in spite of reducing her time in the semi to 8.19 just didn’t make it to the final.

Ice, snow and mud have characterised the first five legs of the Borders Winter Cross Country series but Sunday’s final race at Spittal was relatively mild, although a stiff breeze made running more difficult for the 59 juniors and 127 seniors who were determined to make the last race of the 20th year of this series a fitting climax to the programme.

Again, junior runners took the honours when it came to handing out overall trophies but all Harriers should be congratulated for turning out and racing over some of the most challenging courses in the country in some of the worst weather conditions of the year.

After his sharpener in Glasgow, Rowan Marr ran his heart out to beat his older rival Cameron Fair by a second, coming 3rd in the junior race and clear winner of the 12-13 years boys’ cup in 14 minutes and 38 seconds. In turn, Cameron took the trophy in his 16-17 boys’ class with a superb run of 14.38, after an excellent series. Next home for the club was Kerry Sandilands who ran superbly in 16.24 to take 2nd place overall in the girls’12-13 class, beating Hannah Jones (16.32) on the day but with Hannah taking the first position overall. Emily Jones (17.34) also competed well to achieve 4th overall in the same class with Alison Brown (16.58) coming 2nd on the day and same in the overall placing in the 11 year old girls. Also finishing strongly on the tough ‘out and back’ shoreline route were Lucy Henderson-Morris (17.17), Martha Douglas (18.23), Gillian Sandie (19.05) who won her girls’16-17 category, Jo Marr (20.47) and Rhona Gowans (20.55).

The junior team won the trophy for coming first overall out of the organising teams. 13 seniors braved the sand and headland terrain with some sterling performances, in particular by some of the more mature athletes and some first timers.

Alan Goodson was the first Harrier to enjoy his post-race refreshment in a time of 30.49, with Martin Clarke coming 3rd in the over 50s in 31.47. Also to be commended for all their runs in the series were: Gregor McAneny (32.33), Gillian Duncan (34.30 and 3rd in her F35 class), Laura Goodson (34.32 and 1st in the FJ class), Dougie Paton (34.42), Billy McCulloch (34.55), Paul Morris (38.05). Fiona Shepherd (38.23), Gerry Moss (39.28), Dawn Grant (40.44), Gina Allen (41.31) and Shelagh King (45.57 and 4th in her over 50 class).

Spittal X/C photos in gallery

NEXT WEEK SEES THE SCOTTISH POWER NATIONAL CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS at Callendar Park, Falkirk on Saturday 21 February.

Posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 9:26 am and is filed under News, Race Results.
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