The mild November weather conditions at Drumpellier Park in Coatbridge this year provided excellent cross country racing conditions for the 11 Young Calderglen Harrier athletes who were out and all competing to high standards so it was a great sight to see the Harrier vest / yellow t-shirts amongst the many other Lanarkshire club colours. Well done to all the young athletes who took part in Saturday's races.
The race organisers, Lanarkshire Amateur Athletic Association (LAAA), changed the start of the race to near the bridge end meaning all athletes were running up hill initially however it didn’t deter the Harriers.
First to go was the Under 11 Girls event with Emma Lawton and this was her last year as an under 11, so she was determined to finish in 1st place to match her 1 race number. When the race started Emma made a push to the front and was quickly running joint lead with Dion Ingram from Motherwell AC. It was a neck and neck race with, each taking turns leading but it was Emma who took the final lead on the last downhill and stretched a big enough gap to take 1st place comfortably in time of 3.25 (improving on her 3rd position and time by 2 seconds from 2010).
Next up was the Under 11 Boys with debuts from Finlay Dickson (16th place) and Joseph Fegan (20th place). Despite being a fast road runner, the cross country race terrain provided a challenge for Finlay however he dug in and gave a great effort with a time of 4.04. Joseph was our youngest runner who put in a good steady pace to finish the race in 4.56.
Megan (11.31, 28th), Kate (11.33, 29th) and Louise (11.35, 30th) all continued their progress from the Lanarkshire Relay Championship in October with Anna (11.51, 33rd) debuting in cross country for the Harriers and all pulled out good solid performances. Kate did particularly as she is still recovering from cold. For the u13 boys, Harrier stalwart Drew Gordon (17th place) continued with a consistent steady performance in his second year as u13, recording a time of 11.08 (slightly slower than last year’s time of 11.02, (I blame the hill start)) and new boy Allan Woodhouse did very well moving up the field in the u13 race to come 4th position overall with a time of 9.16 (only 4 seconds away from 3rd place. The 3rd place runner’s time was 9.12). Good going considering it is his brother & sister are Harrier members not him! (Get this boy a registration form)
The final race the Harriers had young athletes competing was the u15 boys where John Woodhouse ran the bigger course with a good strong consistent pace achieving a time of 13.07 just outside the top ten in 11th place. Craig Stewart joined him in this race and stepped up to the 3.7K route this being his first year in the u15 age group and achieved a time of 14.50, (19th place). Well done to Craig for continuing to do well and progressing through the age groups.
On behalf of the Calderglen Harriers, I would like to thank all the young athletes and supporting parents / carers for making this another successful event. A lot of the young athletes this was their first time doing this event or cross country so hopefully valuable experience was gained by all which hopefully will lead us to continued future successes.
A full set of results will be available soon on the Scottish Athletics web site under fixtures.
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