Team gold in Patagonia for Mackay

●● Matty Mackay, right, in action for Harriers

ATHLETICS STEVE DUXBURY

ROSSENDALE Harriers’ young International Mountain runner, Matthew Mackay, may have narrowly missed out on a Bronze medal in the World Mountain Running Championships on Friday but there was an added bonus of team Gold for the eighteen year old.

After qualifying for the Great Britain U20 team by placing third in the trials in Snowdonia in September Matty headed out to Argentina with the team where he enjoyed a few days to acclimatise to the sunny conditions in Villa La Angostura, situated in the Nahuel Huapi National Park, a mountainous area of Patagonia.

However, in the days leading up to the race the weather became more like winter in the Rossendale Valley and consequently the courses which contained both uphill and downhill parts, plus a river crossing, had to be changed due to the wet conditions.

As in the Europeans Championships the race was won by Joe Dugdale in 32mins 44secs with Turkish and Mexican athletes filling the other podium places. Matty was just six seconds off the Bronze medal in 32mins 58secs, team mate Matthew

Knowles crossed the line three seconds later and Joe Hudson completed the winning GB team in 12th place.

It was a great result for the lads, the best of the Great Britain teams, and underlined their U20 dominance of Mountain Running, having duplicated their success in Zermatt in the Europeans.

It was also an amazing achievement for Matty especially as he still has another year in the U20 category and it goes without saying that we, in the Harriers, are incredibly proud of his achievements.

On the roads U17 Ryan Heneghan completed the inaugural Blackburn 10K in 61st position with a new personal best of 40mins 41secs.