Silver lining for Central athletes
Central AC’s men and ladies teams were defending their titles at the Scottish Road Relay Championships in Livingston.
For the men there were high expectations and reputations on the line, having not finished outside first or second in the last decade.
The event took in car-free paths and underpasses for the 17th year, with short legs of 3.15-miles alternating with long legs of 6.2-miles.
There were four legs for the women and six legs for the men.
In the men’s race Central were close to the front from the start, with Murray MacLarty giving his all for a 16.14 first leg.
Cameron Milne then came home in 29.31 to put Central into first place. Matthew Sutherland’s third saw the lead maintained but things began to shift on the fourth.
Corstorphine AAC moved through into first, in spite of Michael Wright’s strong effort of 31.26 on his long leg, and the gap increased in the fifth despite Dale Colley’s determined chase.
It was left to Alastair Hay to claw back the deficit but the challenge proved too much. He completed a 29.56 leg, 67 seconds behind the winners.
Central finished second, extending their impressive record to 11 years.
It was a new Central ladies’ team butFiona Davies set off in fine style on the short leg, bringing the team home in 16th place in 20.45. Claire Houston followed with a 39.44 long leg.
Natalie Short then put in a fine run of 19.26 to bring them 10th before Lauren McCulloch completed the team with a strong final run of 40.4, meaning they finished 11th.
Central men’s B team of Fraser Logan (17.07), newcomer Ian Elliott (38.41), David Lindsay (18.30), Donald Shaw (37.55), Iain Dunsmore (20.52) and Colin Alexander (40.44) acquitted themselves well.
An over-50s mens team tackled a four-stage challenge through David Eckersley (18.37), Charles GrahamMarr (40.23), Hugh Buchanan (20.57) and Colin Sinclair (48.02).
And the over-50s team which comprised Cameron Campbell (24.15), Allan Gall (47.34) and Raymond Hutchison (22.52) had to finish as an incomplete team, while Mark Logie (23.09) was the sole finisher in the second over40 team.