Harriers teams take Championship prizes
Cambuslang Harriers’M40 and 50 teams took silver and bronze medals from the Scottish Cross Country Relay Championships earlier this month.
Held in the grounds of Scone Palace, the event attracted a large gathering of contestants.
As in previous years, the under-13, 15 and 17 girls kicked off proceedings.
Harriers’ ‘A’ team of Erin Kearney, Olivia McNicol and Millie McNicol finished in the top half of a quality field.
They were backed up by the ‘B’ and ‘C’ teams of Emma Ritchie, Mollie Mae Scott, Eva Ritchie, Megan O’Brien, Lucy McGrandle and Eilidh Kennedy.
Their young male counterparts completed four full teams.
The ‘A’ team of Jamie McCarthy, Sam McCarthy and Lewis Roddis combined well to finish 15th, while Alistair McLachlan, Chris Black and Jonathan Dow finished comfortably inside the top half of finishing teams.
Harriers’ ‘C’ team of Euan Reid, Lewis Cook and Fearghus MacGregor were not too far behind the ‘B’ squad and a novice ‘D’ trio of Dylan Howat, Cian Kearney and Dean Edmunds will have benefitted from running at this level in a national championship.
Under-20, senior and Masters women were up next.
Jacqueline Etherington, in her first competitive outing of the cross country season, put the Harriers into a good position which was maintained by Lesley Blackwood, Kirsty O’Brien and Jacqui McLew.
However, due to an unavoidable late call off, Peggy Nan Rodger, Rachel Wardrope and Sarah Simpson had nobody to complete the final leg.
The under 20 men, seniors and Masters also had to contend with the problem of non-entrants due to a variety of injuries and call-offs on account of illnesses, which necessitated changes to teams and to running order.
However, the club still managed to finish eight competitive teams.
At the halfway stage, Cameron Smith and Fraser Stewart of the ‘B’ team were in second place, with the ’A’ duo of Chris McLew and Mike Christoforou in fourth.
In the penultimate leg, Kev Harvey edged the ‘A’ team ahead of Iain MacCorquodale from the ‘B’ team, only for Jamie MacKinnon to overtake Craig Jardine by the finish.
This meant the ‘B’ team took sixth overall, and the ‘A’ quartet were in eighth.
From 535 competitors, Cameron Smith was ninth-fastest, Mike Christoforou, Kev Harvey was 22nd and Jamie MacKinnon 27th.
Chris McLew was also 34th fastest, and ninth at under-20.
Harriers’ ‘C’ team of Zak Povey, Michael Black, Colin Reilly and club captain Richie Carr finished in 25th place.
The M40 West District champions quartet of George Pettit, Stevie Wylie, Justin Carter and Gordon Robertson finished in 28th, with the second-fastest time of the day at that level, just five seconds adrift of Edinburgh AC, which earned them national silver medals.
The ‘B’ team of Iain Nicholl, Scott Hunter, Kenny Finlayson and coach Iain Crawford finished 14th.
Their ‘D’ team of Theo Carter, Gary Lyon, coach Simon Gold and Stephen Leonard finished one place behind them.
There was also a M50 competition over three legs within the main race, with Cambuslang securing third and sixth places.
Richard Cooper – with the secondfastest time overall – Mick O’Hagan and Chris Upson battled well to take the bronze medals, while club secretary Dave Thom, president Des Dickson and Frank McGowan provided the firs M50 ‘B’ team.