Gala girls get bronze in Falkirk
Rosi Capper • Published 26 Feb 2012 09:30
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Becky Couch, Kerry Sandilands and Louise Mercer.
'CLARTY.' The Concise Scots Dictionary defines the word as muddy, dirty, sticky… a perfect description of the conditions which met Gala Harriers as they reached Falkirk's Callendar Park on Saturday, which always provides both a wonderful setting and challenging underfoot conditions for the culmination of the annual cross country season.
Add to this the coating of Saturday morning snow on the hills, the drifting snow flurries which continued throughout the day, freezing temperatures and a chill wind - traditionally perfect conditions for this, one of the toughest events in the national outdoor calendar.
The junior races kick off the day's action and Katie Browne ran well in her first ever Under 13 girls' race in this competition to finish in 16 minutes 49 seconds over the shortest, but still squelchy course.
Paul Henney was running in the Under 15 boys event for the second year and took almost a minute off last year's time of 16.11 over the 4K course, finishing in a grand time of 15.20, with Thomas Otton and Nathan Cox, competing at this level for the first time supporting each other and coming in strongly in 15.39 and 15.42 respectively.
The Under 17 Men's race saw Rowan Marr stepping up to this category and posting a solid time of 26.56 over the extended route, with first timer, Cameron Burnett doing well to complete his race in a steady 29.18.
Last year, following silver medal success in 2010, the Gala U15 girls could only field a depleted team, but with all the girls moving up to the Under 17/20 women's category - and with the addition of Hawick's Louise Mercer running for the first time in a Gala vest, hopes were high for a podium place of some sort.
Kerry Sandilands ran what her coach describes as the 'best race of her life' and ate up the ground in 19.23, with Louise just a handful of seconds behind her in an excellent 19.39 and Becky Couch in a determined 19.56, made all the more so for being her first in this competition.
Their respective 11th, 15th and 19th places in the age group ensured a richly-deserved bronze medal position, behind the big guns of Edinburgh AC and Glasgow School of Sport teams who took gold and silver. It must never be forgotten what an important contribution the other members of the team make to an overall result and Laura Anderson (21.09) and Emily Jones (24.22) ran very well to support the team as a whole.
Former silver medal winner Lucy Henderson-Morris had to pull out of the race due to injury and illness. Junior coaches Neil Renton and Graham Capper were delighted with all the squad's efforts and in particular the bronze medal winning girls. "Given the tough conditions, this was an excellent result and a testament to the hard winter of training. It was nice to see Louise (Mercer's) first outing in a Gala vest earn her a national medal."
The senior women's race covers 8 kilometres of the increasingly clarty parkland and 4 Gala women took on the distance amongst the large field of 234 runners, missing two regular team members, Dianne Lauder and Gillian Duncan due to injury.
Ladies' captain Rachel Fagan led the team home in 36 minutes 51 seconds, and along with Fiona Shepherd (38.56) Eileen Nicol (39.36) and Andrea Pogson (41.15) all representing their club loyally and ensuring 18th position from 28 teams on the day.
A huge field of over 500 senior men included 7 Harriers who took on the even clartier 12 kilometres as the last race of the day.
Fergus Johnson bettered last year's time by over 25 seconds and scampered home as the first Harrier back in 45.44. Colin McCall (48.18) shaved almost 4 minutes off last year's performance, with Sinclair Hill breathing down his neck in 48.28, and Graham Manczak (50.50) Derrick Brydon (54.38) Dave Nightingale (55.30) and Martin Clarke (58.16) negotiating the slippery slopes to bring the team home in 23rd place, out of 33 clubs overall.
There's no accounting for some folks' behaviour but not in any way put off by the gruelling effort at the nationals, some of the afore-mentioned characters were also part of the action at the final round of the Borders Winter Cross Country series the following day.
Relocated to the lovely grounds of Floors Castle in Kelso from Norham because of the logistics of exceptionally high numbers of athletes signing up to this ever-popular series, the day dawned clear, cold and bright in contrast to the previous one and racing conditions could not have been better.
The newly designed course promised 'some interesting features' and sure enough some equestrian jumps as well as the anticipated ups and downs greeted the 82 juniors and 140 seniors. Gala Harriers were lying in favourable positions both individually and as a team going into the final round, and the performances on the day consolidated this for the club with top places for the senior teams (team positions to be confirmed), and juniors (to be confirmed). Individual results can be seen on the Norham Running Club website.
Congratulations to all the juniors and seniors who have competed over the 7 rounds, especially to the following who have consistently achieved high placings in their age categories: Nathan Cox, Thomas Otton, Jamie Logan, Andrew Hogg, Jo Arres, Cara Hogg, Jamie Kinghorn (juniors) and Mark Bryson, Felix Otton, Dave Nightingale, Fiona Dalgleish, Andrea Pogson and Karen Maxwell (seniors).
Earlier this month at the Scottish National Masters Cross Country Championships at Kilmarnock, Gala Harrier Bob Marshall achieved an impressive 4th position in his age group.
This article appeared in Border Telegraph 27 Feb 12
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