Central’s senior men won a fifteenth successive team gold at the Scottish National cross country championships which took place at Callendar Park, Falkirk on Saturday 21 February, a venue which has hosted the championship since 2006. The day was archetypal cross country weather: overcast, dreich and breezy. The start and finish area evoked a mediaeval battlefield with banners, tents and mud with the backdrop of the elegant architecture of Callendar House, and the course became a serpentine path of pulverised grass punctuated by Falkirk Council’s budding bulbs.
The first races of the day were for the Under 13s over 3.4km. First off were the girls where Lila Robertson flew the club colours coming home in 63rd in 15:00. The boys were next on the blocks with Brody Scanlon running strongly to finish 44th in 13:30, well-supported by Finlay Gallagher in 68th (14:10).
As the races lengthened to 4.3km for the Under 15s, we had a full team of 4 in the girls race who were led home by Ella Hunter in 15th in 16:34 supported strongly by Emily Watkin in 33rd place (17:48) and Nicole Taylor in 51st (18:29) with the team being completed by Elena Forrest in 118th (22:25) to finish in 7th place in the team rankings. In the boys race, Thomas Arnott battled the competitive field to cross the line in 85th (17:50).
The Under 17s tackled a distance of 5.9km and Fia Watkin led our by Women’s representation in a strong 44th place (27:44) closely pursued by Katherine Mitchell (52nd, 29:12).
The 10km Senior Women’s race precedes the Under 20 races in order to help running parents by leaving a handover gap before the Senior Men’s race. This race grabbed much of the media attention with Laura Muir providing the star quality as she broke away on the third lap from her pursuers to win by a comfortable margin. Central’s Morag Millar ran an excellent race, much of it on her own just behind the leading group of 3, and held off her pursuers to finish just outside the medals in 4th place in 36:17. Grace Whelan started strongly but despite conceding some places in the latter stages of the race finished an excellent 12th (37:34) with Anna Hedley hot on her heels (15th, 37:55) and Jennifer Wetton not much further behind (28th, 39:55). The rest of our women’s squad were led home by Liz Robertson (176th, 50:15) who was well-supported by Finuala Bell (209th, 52:19), Sally Gallagher (214th, 52:33), Linda Cunningham (279th, 59:14) and Claire Thompson (293rd, 63:24). Central’s women placed 9th in the 6-person team rankings.
The Under 20s raced 7.6km over 3 laps. In the Men’s race of 68 finishers, Iain Jordan picked up a well-deserved individual bronze in 24:21 and the spectators didn’t have to wait long to see Daniel Sutherland (19th, 26:03) and Kaydan Day (24th, 26:25) pack closely in. Unfortunately, injuries meant that we only had three finishers and so we weren’t placed in the team competition. In the women’s in race some of our runners were representing their universities and so again the Central team was unranked. Tuscany Wright in her Glasgow University colours picked up an individual bronze and a silver team medal followed by Scarlett Roy (25th, 32:37), Rachel Warden running for St Andrews University (44th, 34:55), Megan MacDonald (47th 35:37) and Leah Brown (50th, 36:24) running for Stirling University.
The final race of the day which produced 577 finishers was the Senior Men over the same 3 laps as the Senior Women. Central’s Senior Men have held a stranglehold on the team title here with ours being the only name on the trophy since 2010, and have also had 8 individual winners dating back to 2005 in Robert Russell, Alastair Hay (twice), Andrew Butchart (twice) and Jamie Crowe (3 times). What would happen this year?
From the start the leading group included Jamie Crowe, Hamish Hickey and Aidan Thompson and as the laps ticked away, Jamie made a decisive move to run clear for his fourth title in 30:41. Hamish fought hard but was forced out of the medals into 4th (31:08) with Aidan in close support (7th, 31:39). Carnethy also had 3 finishers in the first fifteen, but Central supporters’ nerves were soon calmed by the finishes of Logan Beagley (16th, 32:28), Alastair Marshall (18th, 32:33), Calum Phillip (25th, 32:48) and Conan McCaughey (28th, 32:56) giving an unassailable 6-person team total of 71 points and giving the club an unprecedented 15 victories in a row. The Central runners just kept coming as the race progressed with Cameron Kerr (38th, 33:43), Kieran Reilly (48th, 34:10), Cameron Milne (54th, 34:31) leading home our first Masters finisher in Ross Houston (60th, 34:49), Max Stevens (67th, 35:04) and Lewis McComb (77th, 35:23). These were followed by a close tussle between Euan Docherty (109th, 36:22) and Euan Andrews (110th, 36:26), and then by Jack Honeyman (162nd, 38:14) before a slight gap to the rest of our Masters finishers led by Donald Shaw (353rd, 44:13), Sean Morrison (400th, 45:33), David Eckersley (401st, 45:34), Tony Disley (415th, 46:12), Alastair Cunningham (490th, 50:24), Hugh Buchanan (496th, 51:07) and a final sprint finish between Colin Sinclair (559th, 57:29) and Allan Gall (560th, 57:30).
There are excellent photo galleries of the event by Bobby Gavin at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1344639544357175 and https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1345043614316768
The full results are available at https://results.sporthive.com/events/7427379424208617472/races/8