CAMBUSLANG HARRIERS WIN SCOTTISH AND UK MEDALS IN INDOOR TRACK, CROSS COUNTRY AND ROAD COMPETITIONS
Club Captain Kirsty O’Brien has kindly been giving regular detailed updates on the performances of Cambuslang members throughout the months of January, February, March and April 2025. My intention is to pull all the achievements together.
Stefanie Tucker kicked off 2025 in fine style by setting an indoor personal best of 9.23.57 to secure the Scottish 3000M silver medal. At the same meeting there were also a number of other pbs set by Jamie MacKinnon (8.10.34), Callum Tharme (8.10.36), Fraser Stewart (8.25.18), Chris McLew (8.41.08), Mark Gallacher (9.47.50) and Grace Drummond (10.13.98).
The Scottish Inter District Cross Country Championships held at Alexandra Park in Glasgow were incorporated into the British Athletics Cross Challenge. U13 girl Brooke Walker helped the West to second place in the team competition by finishing the 4th counter. First year U17 Daibhidh Kinnaird continued his upward trajectory when capturing the individual silver medal and led his fellow West athletes to team gold. Eve MacKinnon acquired the senior women bronze medal and was 2nd counter for the gold winning West team. Katie Clubb by virtue of her Shetland residency was able to help the North team lift the team bronze medals. Both Jamie MacKinnon and Kevan Harvey played their part in helping the West senior men to the silver medals.
The ubiquitous Chris Upson ventured south and clinched a bronze medal in the M60 British Masters 3000M Indoor Championships. Closer to home Chris took a Scottish 800M bronze medal and a 1500M silver medal in his age group. In her indoor debut Marie Kane lifted the W35 1500M gold medal while club president Des Dickson was awarded the M65 800M gold medal and Jacqueline Etherington the W45 800M bronze.
Having recovered from a recent illness U17 athlete Euan Reid bounced back to capture the Scottish Schools 1500M bronze medal with a pb time. Club mate John Frood was just outside the 800M medals in 4th spot.
The Scottish Masters 3000M Indoor Championships produced 5 medals for the red and white athletes. W45 Jacqueline Etherington and M60 Chris Upson were crowned Scottish Champions with the M40 silver medal going to Stuart Gibson and the M35 and M60 bronze medals to Steven Fitzpatrick and Dave Thom.
Normal business on the country resumed with the Scottish Masters Cross Country Championships at Dundee. A decisive victory by Colin Donnelly in the M65 event meant that he equalled fellow Cambuslang athlete Eddie Stewart’s record of winning successive gold medals in all 5 years age groups from M40 to M65. This joint achievement by 2 Cambuslang athletes to have won the 6 available masters titles over a period of 30 years speaks volumes for their calibre and durability. In the younger male competition Chris Upson continued his domination in the M60 age group and M50 silver medallist Justin Carter again produced the goods in a national championship. With valuable support from M60 Dave Thom the trio finished runners up in the M50 team competition. The participation in the event from several other club athletes was appreciated. Club captain Kirsty O’Brien, Bernie O’Neil, Des Dickson, coach Iain Reid who was 4th M45 and Iain Wallace, in the words of a traditional Scottish Folk Ballad, also took “The Road to Dundee”
On the same day Daibhidh Kinnaird and Eve MacKinnon had the honour of competing for Scotland in the Home Counties International and Celtic Plate. Although only a first year U17 he was promoted to the U20 team and as 3rd Scottish finisher helped the team to gold medals in the Celtic Plate and to silver medals in the Home Counties Competition. Eve ran strongly for 14th place in the senior women Home Counties Event and was 3rd counter in the silver medal winning Scottish team.
The club was delighted once again to accept the generous invitation from James Vallely, the race director of the Armagh International Road Races, to compete in the women’s 3K and the men’s 5K. Cambuslang first participated in the men’s 5K in 1994 in which Stevie Wylie was runner up and then victor the following year. The initial race director Brian Vallelly and the Armagh committee have worked very hard over the years to build up the reputation of the men and women’s events. The men’s 5K is widely acknowledged as the fastest 5K in depth in the UK. Not surprisingly race entries are like gold dust. There is an entry qualification time of 16 minutes for the men and a club is only allowed up to 6 entrants. Stefanie Tucker, Eve MacKinnon, Zoe Pflug, Gemma Drummond, Holly Little and Georgia Freeman-Mills were chosen for the 3K event. However, due to illness and injuries Eve, Zoe and Georgia did not travel. Nevertheless, Stephanie, who was also representing Scotland, Gemma and Holly all ran superbly to take the bronze team medals with respective times of 9.26, 10.03 and 10.12. It was then up to the Cambuslang sextet of Jamie MacKinnon, Andrew McGill, Callum Tharme, Fraser Stewart, Gavin Smith and Stuart Donnachie to match the ladies’ feat. The men duly responded. Led by an inspired Jamie who delivered a life time best of 13.55, a 29 seconds improvement, and ably supported by Andrew 14.09, in his first race for over 3 months, Callum 14.15 and Fraser 14.46 the men also secured team bronze. Both Gavin, returning too from a lengthy injury, and Stuart, in his first race of this stature were only 2 seconds away from making the counting four. The 2025 race statistics again confirmed the bespoke quality of both races as 154 men finished under 15 minutes and 41 women ran sub 10 minutes.
Callendar Park in Falkirk was the venue once again for the Scottish Cross Country Championships. U13 Brooke Walker in 15th place led home Ava Starrs and Sophia Ewart. In the corresponding U13 boys event 16th placed Carlo Brown, Douglas Gallie, Aiden O’Connell and Noah Midwinter finished 9th in the team competition. Rory Barclay in 17th place and Jack Gillon 46th were well placed in the U15 boys race. Cambuslang’s finest moment came in the U17 men’s competition. First year U17 Daibhidh Kinnaird breasted the tape to be crowned Scottish Cross Country Champion. His parents and coach Iain Reid were there to celebrate his outstanding achievement. The most recent U17 Cambuslang Scottish medallists have been Ryan Thomson, 3rd in 2013, Grant Sheldon, first in 2011 and Jack Hamilton, 2nd in 2010. Behind him John Frood and Euan Reid had their own private tussle with both athletes sharing the same time.
In spite of some late call offs due to illness and injuries the senior women produced a gutsy performance to secure 6th spot out of 18 finishing teams. Grace Drummond in her first season with the club crossed the line in 36th position closely followed by Katie Clubb, who had made the long journey from Shetland, Hannah Addison, Kirsty Wright, Catriona Bain and Zara Higgins. Next from the club to finish were a semi injured Kirsty O’Brien, Natalie McWilliams, Julie Reid and Rachel Wardrope.
The tightly packed U20 men quartet of Sam McCarthy, Christopher Black, Lewis Roddis and Finlay Robb narrowly missed out on the team bronze medals. Seonaidh MacInnes and Alex Gillies offered important back up support.
In a highly competitive senior men race the Cambuslang sextet missed out on the bronze medal by a single point to Shettleston Harriers in spite of the valiant efforts of individual bronze medallist Kevin Campbell, Kevan Harvey 26th, Callum Tharme 35th, Cameron Smith 36th, Jamie MacKinnon 37th and Gavin Smith 42nd from 639 finishers. In only his 3rd ever cross country competition Kevin was once again a revelation to secure a podium place, the first Cambuslang senior man to do so since Wegene Tafese.won gold in 2013. We then need to go back to 2003 when Stevie Wylie finished runner up. 5 other club athletes made the top 100 finishers occupying places 47 to 89. Rory Muir in his best country run to date headed Fraser Stewart, Craig Jardine, Chris McLew and first M45 Iain Reid. Andrew Carey, Callum Matthews and Keir Crawford were all inside the top 200. The 12 remaining red and white members crossed the line at regular intervals in the order of Owen Leach, M45 Arthur Calnan, Alistair Campbell, triathlete Lewis Anderson, Tom Adams, coach Ross Noble, Callum Wright, M65 Des Dickson and the M50 quartet of Iain Wallace, Dan O’Connell, Chris Paton and coach Iain Crawford. All our coaches, supporters and parents in attendance deserve a special thanks as do athletes Richie Carr and Kevin Newberry who kindly volunteered to act as official course stewards.
The focus turned to the roads the week after the National Cross Country as Shettleston Harriers staged the historic Allan Scally Road Relays in nearby Glasgow Green. From a record entry of 301 teams Cambuslang’s senior men team of Chris McLew 15.31, Gavin Smith 15.07, Cameron Smith 14.49 and Jamie MacKinnon 14.37 emerged victorious in a new course record time of 60 minutes and 4 seconds. The M50 quartet of Mark Gallacher, Justin Carter, Chris Upson and Mark King also recorded a decisive victory in their own age group with the B team of Dan O’Connell, Iain Crawford, Chris Paton and Iain Wallace finishing an excellent 4th. In the mixed event Holly Little, Keir Crawford, Eve MacKinnon and Owen Leach took the runners up spot. Marie Kane, Rachel Wardrope, Natalie McWilliams and Zara Higgins combined well to feature in the top half of all finishing women’s teams. Fast runs were also recorded by Andrew McGill and Andrew Carey in the colours of Glasgow University, Rory Muir representing Stride Glasgow and M40 Stuart Gibson.
Daibhidh Kinnaird continued his purple patch to lift the Scottish Schools U17 Men’s Cross Country Title. There were also strong performances from Sam McCarthy 11th in the Men’s U20 age group and Brooke Walker 12th in the U13 girls event. 3 days later Daibhidh was once again in action representing the West of Scotland in the Inter Counties Cross Country Championships and in finishing 13th played a pivotal part in helping the U17 West Team to gain bronze medals.
On the 9th March the club hosted its Down by the River 10 and 3K races. This year the fixture supported the BEAT (eating disorder charity) in memory of former athlete Millie Nicholl. The results saw the Garscube pair of Mykola Kulakov and Louisa Brown as the male and female winners of the 3K race with the Cambuslang U13 duo of Carlo Brown and Brooke Walker finishing 3rd male and 2nd female. Stefanie Tucker accompanied by her fiance Cameron Smith knocked a healthy 63 seconds off the course record to clock the excellent time of 35.17 which earned her a course bonus prize courtesy of Barnie Gough. The women’s team title was retained with support from Zara Higgins and Catriona Bain. Rory Muir (31.38) continued his good form to smash his pb by 93 seconds and led his team mates M40 Colin Reilly and Lewis Dickson to team victory. The M50 and M60 prizes were scooped up by Justin Carter and Chris Upson. The Jimmy Sands Memorial Shields awarded to the first Cambuslang male and female harriers went to Rory and Stefanie while the Jim Fitzpatrick Memorial Shields were won by the leading home masters namely Colin Reilly and Julie Reid.
On the same day five club athletes made the journey north to Inverness to participate in the Scottish Half Marathon Championships. Ryan Thomson was involved in a head to head competition throughout the race until the last 1K with eventual gold medallist Jamie Crowe of Central AC and runner up Sean Chalmers of Aberdeen. In the end he had to settle for the bronze medal in spite of clocking 65 minutes and 22 seconds. It was a close affair with only 4 seconds separating them. Former winner Fraser Stewart came home 11th in a time of 68.25 followed by M40 runners Stuart Gibson (73.43) and Andrew Anderson (76.02). The red and whites were narrowly pipped by Fife AC for the Scottish bronze medals but did finish 3rd in the open event. Erica Christie continued her fine record in this championship event to take the Scottish W60 bronze medal.
This year’s BMAF Cross Country Championships were staged on home territory at nearby Tollcross Park. The over 45,55 and 65 men’s teams took advantage of racing on a familiar course to clinch these 3 age group team gold medals. The 45-54 team comprised of first and second M45s Iain Reid and Gordon Robertson along with silver M50 medallist Justin Carter while the M55-64 age group featured M60 winner Chris Upson, 3rd placed M55 Mark King and new member Stephen Alan, 4th M55, who is building up his fitness again after a lengthy injury. Fellow new member Walter Henderson although still feeling the effects of a cold offered valuable support as 5th M55. 5th placed M35 Alistair Campbell was the sole club representative in the younger 35-44 age group. M65 Runner up Colin Donnelly led 5th and 8th placed Des Dickson and Eddie Stewart to a decisive team victory. Both Colin and Eddie who were counting members in the first Cambuslang Scottish Champions senior men’s team away back in 1988 turned out for the club in spite of nursing hamstring issues. M65 Eddie Carr and M70 Sandy Eaglesham had solid runs. Club captain Kirsty O’Brien and Bernie O’Neil gave good accounts of themselves in their respective W40 and W55 age groups.
On the same day the young athletes were involved in their Scottish Road Championships at North Berwick. Brooke Walker, a splendid 9th finisher, and Ava Star featured for the club in the U13 girls event. Carlo Brown was well placed in 13th position and led Aiden O’Connell and David Lyon to 8th place in the U13 boys team contest. The U15 boys trio of Rory Barclay, Jack Gillon and Oliver Lievonen was one place better off. Both U17 Daibhidh Kinnaird and Euan Reid ended up in the middle of the pack with solid times of 16.25 and 16.43 in spite of feeling unwell on race day.
The following week the U20, senior and masters participated in the Scottish Road Relay Championships at Livingston. All Cambuslang members were pleased to see club stalwart and multi team medallist in this event, Colin Feechan, in attendance. In spite of illness he came along to support the club he has done so much for both as an athlete and as treasurer. The senior women quartet of Zara Higgins, Katie Clubb, Zoe Pflug and Eve MacKinnon battled well for 4th place in a very competitive competition. Likewise the W50 trio of Jackie Thomson, Bernie O’Neil and Erica Christie finished a very creditable 5th team. There were solid runs too by Marie Kane, Rachel Wardrope and Catriona Bain in a partial senior women’s B team. This event provided good competition for Katie and Catriona as they prepare for the Island Games later in the summer.
The M50, M40 and senior men’s teams all made the podium. The M50 A team of Chris Upson, Justin Carter, Mark Gallacher and Stevie Wylie proved too strong for the opposition. The B quartet of Des Dickson, Richard Cooper, Eddie Stewart and Dan O’Connell crossed the line in an excellent 5th place. In the 11 years in which the M50 relay has been contested Cambuslang has accumulated medals in every year apart from one – 8 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze.
The M40s returned to the podium after an absence of 3 years. Arthur Calnan in his first season with the club was given the important task of leading off and he fully justified his inclusion. Further strong performances from Iain Reid, Stuart Gibson, Colin Reilly, Ian Hodge and Gordon Robertson earned the sextet the bronze medals.
The senior men and the remaining masters fielded 3 full team plus one other athlete starting off a 4th team. A well balanced squad of Gavin Smith, Kevan Harvey, Andrew McGill, Cameron Smith, Jamie MacKinnon and Callum Tharme also captured the bronze medals behind 2 very strong Kilbarchan and Central teams. Andrew McGill (15.04) running on stage 3 broke the club short leg record by 3 seconds. The B sextet comprising of 3 under 20 and 3 senior athletes made the top 20 finishing teams thanks to Sam McCarthy, Keir Crawford, Chris Black, Kevin Farmer, Lewis Roddis and Rory Muir. Alex Gillies, Ross Noble, Richard Carr, Tony McCutcheon, Gary Lyon and Chris Paton put in good efforts for the C team while Alan Anderson completed the opening 5K leg for the incomplete D team.
A number of athletes have produced strong performances on the roads in non championship events. Stefanie Tucker came close to her 5K pb of 16.15 at Leicester. Marie Kane set the ball rolling over the longer distances with a pb half marathon time in Barcelona. Other half marathon pbs were recorded at Alloa by Arthur Calnan, Chris Cox, Callum Wright and Catriona Bain. Callum’s wife Kirsty was the leading Cambuslang lady in this event. Other competing athletes were James Smith, Zara Higgins, Andrew Blain, Iain Wallace, Dan O’Connell, Eddie Carr and Chris Paton. In the Carlisle event over the same distance Steven Fitzpatrick just missed a pb by 8 seconds whereas in the Berlin race Stuart Donnachie dipped under 70 minutes for the first time by 41 seconds. Moving up to the full marathon distance Gerry Higgins recorded a time of 3.15 in Milan, Paula McCabe’s 3.34.58 clocking at Moray saw her finish 2nd W40 and Ian Hodge’s time of 2.45 49 in Vienna was agonizingly only 10 seconds off his pb. However, Andrew Blain in the same race came away with a pb of 3.11.38. On the comeback trail after injury Kirsty Mann secured the W35 top spot in the Vienna 5K.
The Tom Scott Memorial 10 Miler incorporating the Scottish Championships marked the end of the autumn to spring season. 500 athletes toed the starting line close to the Water Sport Centre in Strathclyde Park. A fierce contrary wind on certain sections of the course was awaiting all participants. After the initial cavalry charge a group of around 10 athletes gathered at the front. As the pace increased the leading pack was whittled down to 6 athletes and then to 4 which included Scott Stirling, Olympian Callum Hawkins and the Cambuslang duo of Kevin Campbell and Ryan Thomson. This quartet would bunch up when running into the strong wind and then transfer into a sprint when encountering a tail wind. Ryan was the first to drop in the closing stages and then Kevin which seemingly left Scott and Callum to vie for the national title. Scott made a successful last effort to shake off Callum which then inspired Kevin to overtake him for the silver medal. Ryan ended up a close 4th. All 4 athletes whose times ranged from 48.31 to 48.50 were inside the Scottish A standard. M40 Colin Reilly (55.20) was the next club athlete home to seal the Scottish Team Silver Medal. Steven Fitzpatrick was only 19 seconds behind Colin with M40 Stuart Gibson next in 56.14 and then M50 bronze medallist Justin Carter (58.02). Tom Adams in his debut at this distance narrowly missed out on breaking the 60 minutes barrier by 9 seconds. Dale Woods also in his first 10 miler can be pleased with his recorded time of 62.29. M55 Mark King crossed the line 38 seconds later. Kevin Farmer with a pb of 66.25 was almost a minute ahead of M40 Chris Campbell, another first timer at this distance. Callum Wright’s clocking of 67.38 earned him a well deserved pb. The women’s team finished a creditable 5th thanks to Nathalie Brohan, 6th W50, in the excellent time of 68.02, Kirsty Wright a pb of 70.08 and the ever supportive club captain Kirsty O’Brien (71.36). The remaining Cambuslang athletes to cross the line in times ranging from 72.21 to 87.22 were M50 Iain Wallace, M40 David Scott, W40 Paula McCabe, M65 Eddie Carr, W65 Erica Christie, the W60 silver medallist, M50 Chris Paton in his first 10 miler, Suz Ross, Rachel Wardrope and coach Iain Crawford.
Cambuslang Harrier Nathalie Brohan capitalized on her new status as a W50 athlete to take the Scottish gold and the British silver medals in the combined Scottish and British Duathlon Championships. Lewis Anderson was 8th and 13th senior man in the respective championships.
DAVID COONEY
