WEST DISTRICT XC CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011

Megan leading Louise to the finish

After a week of extreme weather the Junior Harriers were faced with cold & dry racing conditions in Irvine this afternoon.  With a few call offs, 5 brave Harriers took part to test themselves against the rest of the young athletes within the West of Scotland.

The first race of the day was the Under 13 Girls who had the luxury of being the first runners on the course so parts of the course were still firmer on foot and less muddy.  The Under 13 Girls were represented by sisters Megan & Helen Anderson and Louise Brown.

In a field of 66 runners all the girls did really well to complete the 3.2K course and maintained good form throughout. Megan was the first Harrier over the line in a time of 15:41, followed very closely by Louise in 15:42 and the trooper of the day was Helen.  She has only recently returned to running/training and doing a cross country without spikes completed the course in a respectable 17:43.  If she maintains this level of determination and training I am positive she will be up running alongside Megan and Louise next year.

The next race was the Under 13 boys and Harrier stalwart Drew Gordon was doing this event for the second time and even though it didn’t feel like at the time he did a great race.  His time was 15:04, placing him 43 in a field of 48 runners and more importantly he achieved a PB of 1min 56secs against last year’s time of 17mins.  Well done Drew!

The final race the Harriers had young athletes competing was the u15 boys where Craig Stewart ran the race for the first time in this age category and stepped up to the bigger 4.4K route in a field of 46 runners and achieved a time of 22:35(43^rd place).  Well done to Craig for continuing to do well.

On behalf of the Calderglen Harriers, I would like to thank all the young athletes and parents 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 future successes.

A full set of results will be available on the Scottish Athletics web site under fixtures then results soon.