Scottish Inter Region Champs & East District League: Broxburn
January 19th, 2010Moving athletics indoors sounds a good option in these wintry conditions and after battling in the snowy wastes of Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park last week, Gala Harrier juniors relished the thought of racing in Kelvingrove’s indoor track on Saturday and Sunday in the Scottish Inter Regional Championships. And well they might! While their senior colleagues battled in the East District league in chilly Broxburn, the youngsters were scorching to glory in Glasgow.
On Saturday, Jo Marr and Demi Yorke both went through the heats of the under 15 girls’ 60 metres very smoothly, Jo achieving a personal best time of 8.95 seconds and Demi winning her heat in 8.33. Jo ran very well in the semi final to finish 6th, while Demi led the way in hers in 8.26. In the final, Demi saved the best til last and pulled a personal best out of the hat to win in 8.13, a superb effort.
Not to be outdone by the sterling efforts of his sister, Rowan Marr stepped up to the line in the U15 boys’ 800m and ran a canny race, sitting behind the leaders for the first lap, just on the leader’s shoulder in the second, taking the lead in the third and holding on to it to take his first national gold medal in an excellent personal best of 2.19. This is a fantastic result for Rowan who trains so hard and richly deserves this success for himself and all his family who support him so well.
Demi stepped back into the arena for the long jump and after her sprint exertions did well to finish in a creditable 4th place overall.
Sean Grant competed in the under 17 boys 60m and finished 6th in his heat in a grand time of 8.19 and Sophie Elder, despite coming second in her heat of the under 17 girls 300m was not lucky enough to progress to the final.
The action continued on Sunday (and although the results are not yet up) with both Sophie and Demi competing again. Demi this time took on the opposition in the U15 girls’ 200m and once again let no-one go past her as she stormed through to win the final in another personal best of 27.48.
While the juniors were bringing home the honours, senior athletes were nevertheless representing their club well in the raw conditions of Broxburn Academy in West Lothian. This was the third and final leg of the East District league and while a full men’s team was scrambled, only Rachel Fagan made it for the ladies but ran superbly to finish in 15th place out of 73 runners in an excellent time of 27 minutes and 11 seconds. Graeme Murdoch led the Gala guys home in a well-deserved 17th place out of 195 starters, his time of 33.31 combined with those of the others lifting the team to a solid 11th place out of 36 across the season. Fergus Johnston was the second runner home for the Harriers in a well-judged 37.08 with Magnus Inglis (41.32) and Derrick Brydon (43.08) ensuring that the team tail wagged.
Lucy Morris was the only junior competing for the club but ran extremely well in the combined Under 15 and 17 girls’ race to finish 5th in the Under 15s and 11th overall in an excellent time of 18 minutes 15 seconds. Well done Lucy.
