UK Inter-district X/C, Lasswade 10 & Inter-school X/C 2011
March 15th, 2011Gala Harriers have been in action as far south as Birmingham and to the snowy wastes of Irvine over the past two weeks – as well as closer to home in Lasswade, with some respectable results as the cross country season comes to its end.
Dianne Lauder has represented both her district and her country now for a few seasons and her most recent selection took her to Cofton Park in Birmingham on 5 March for the McCain Cross Country series, which is both an international and a UK inter-district event. Over a testing course amongst 261 female athletes from all over the UK, Dianne contributed well to the 5th place out of 25 that the East of Scotland senior women achieved. Her 63rd position in 31 minutes 7 seconds ensured that the East team were the top Scottish women’s team.
Next day, the Lasswade 10 mile race attracted almost 400 runners and its relentless uphill first half separates the men from the boys – and the women from the girls! Four intrepid male Harriers brought home a 6th placing for the club out of 17, with strong and steady runs from Fergus Johnston (61.52) Calum Stewart (64.46) Colin McCall (65.25) and Sinclair Hill (65.30) in his first outing for the club. For the women, Carole Fortune put in a very respectable time of 75.53 to finish just outside the top half.
And just last weekend, with the unwelcome return of the white stuff, Scottish secondary school athletes travelled to Irvine for the inter-school Cross Country championships there. Some young Gala Harriers were representing their schools and despite the chilly and uninviting conditions, pulled out some respectable performances nevertheless. Paul Henney running in the boys 14-15 age group over 4000m finished 18th out of 82 in 16.29; Isla King in the girls 15-17s was 23rd out of 54 in 19.25 over the same distance; and Rowan Marr was 27th out of 67 in 20.20 over the longer 5000m course in the boys 15-17 age group.
Next week sees the Deerstalker and the Mighty Deerstalker at Traquair on Saturday 19th and the Alloa Half Marathon on Sunday 20th March.
