photo – (C) Bobby Gavin
There was a certain air of concern following the overnight torrential rain and high winds as the packed Club bus made its way to Falkirk for the National XC Champs on Saturday , passing swollen rivers which had completely flooded adjoining fields where we could just make out drowned tractors and other farm equipment . We discovered on arrival that it had been a very close call re the event going ahead at all. However, all the athletes and coaches had by this time realised it was going to be a very slippy ,muddy, boggy champs calling on the strengths physical , emotional and psychological of all our competitors both Junior and Senior. Or maybe just true grit and so it proved as we coaches, parents and supporters were not disappointed with the efforts on display. We got the tents up and got to the preparation for the races.
JUNIORS
Individual Gold for Erin Wallace in the Under 17 Women’s race and Gold Team with Lynn and Charlotte McKenna
Bronze Team for the Under 17 Men Andrew Love, Ben Shaw, Michael Lowrie and Nikolai Gajic
Gold Individual for Hamish Armitt U15 Boys
Silver Individual for Heather Barnes U15 Girls
Gold Team place for Under 15 Girls with Heather, Helen Chong, Kate Richardson & Francesca Davidson
Silver Team Medals for the U13 Boys
Reuben Macdonald, Jacob Luc , Cameron Green , Harris Paterson
and 4th Places for Under 13 Girls and Under 15 Boys Teams
Dudley Walker reports:
(C) Bobby Gavin –
“Well that’s it over for yet another year …….
Thank you to everyone who helped at Falkirk today. Some really good results and for me, one or two areas for improvement. So back to work tomorrow with the next target the RR championships at Greenock on 18th March. Results from today……….”
Dudley doesn’t mess about. Its on and upwards to the next challenge , the Scottish Schools XC and the National Road Championships
Full report to follow. We have updated Facebook and Twitter with the main results but in summary as Croy Thomson reports “Two individual champions, a silver medalist, two team titles, a team silver, a team bronze, two team fourth-places, two other squads who would have medalled if the rules allowed … runners who fell and got up again to finish for the team … runners who lost shoes and still finished for the team … wow it was adventures all round, adding up to the special sort of day that doesn’t happen very often. But then we have a special bunch of athletes. Keep at it, everyone, keep improving and we can have more days like Saturday. Well done, and thanks to the parents, pals, tent wranglers, officials and the parks people who yet again let us churn their meadows to mush … theme tune has to be James Taylor’s Mud Slide Slim, surely?”
JUNIOR PHOTOGRAPHS ON OUR FLICKR PAGESENIOR WOMEN
Only five actually made the line due to several injuries – Jill Smylie, Allie Chong, Alison Matthews, Catriona Gourley and Anne Williamson. The new longer 10k distance was a tough challenge, especially once the juniors has churned up much of the course into a proper quagmire.
Jill ran strongly to finish in 59th place, with Allie Chong in 76th, Catriona in 244 and Alison in 257, making up the counters for the team (23rd overall).
SENIOR MEN
In a total field of 647 our senior men’s team finished 19th overall with Andrew Bonner 100th, Chris Greenhalgh 126th, Jason Steele 222nd, Ted Gourley 226th, Scott Wilson 235th and Graeme Croll 260th.
Superb vocal support from the juniors around the course was hugely appreciated!
SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHS ON OUR FLICKR PAGE