September 24th, 2024

Athletes from Cambuslang Harriers have been flying the red and white flag at a number of major championship events throughout the summer.

Moira Stewart having narrowly lost out on a place in the Czech team for the previous Olympics fulfilled her long-time ambition to contest the Olympic Marathon in Paris.  While she is eligible to compete for Cambuslang through her father Eddie, a long- time Cambuslang member, she was representing the Czech Republic.  The hilly nature of the course and the rising humidity meant that personal best times were in short supply.  Moira was no exception here.  She started off comfortably in the first half of the field but dropped back on the first major hill.  However, she refuelled at a water station and managed to regain her position by the top of the final hill.  It was then she felt unwell which caused her to slow and to lose ground again.  Nevertheless, there was no way she was going to drop out and it was a case of gritting her teeth to get to the finish where she crossed the line in 66th place out of 91 starters with a time of 2.38.07.  Her Olympian dream had been fulfilled.

M60 Chris Upson certainly got his money’s worth at the Worlds Masters Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden.  He participated in 6 Championship Events plus a parkrun in 11 days.  His highlights were picking up an individual silver medal in the Cross Country Race and an individual Road bronze medal.   He also led the GB team to the Cross Country Gold Medals.  For the record he set an 800M pb in his 800M heat, won his 1500M heat and was 6th in a super fast final and filled the same position in the 5000M.  Chris is in the form of his life just now and throughout the summer months has set pbs on the track over 800M, the mile, 3000M and 10000M as well as a 3K road best.  Although M50 Justin Carter was not among the medals he put in strong performances in the half marathon and cross country events in which he finished 7th and 12th.

M65 Colin Donnelly bounced back from a hamstring injury which had forced him to drop out of the Scottish Masters Cross Country Championships in February to convincingly capture the M65 World Uphill Running Championships.  The runners were not only faced with a  gruelling 2,300M ascent to the Spanish Pyrenean Race Peak but also had to contend with the first snowfall of the season which had arrived during the night.  The temperature at the start was 3 degrees centigrade and zero degrees centigrade at the summit with a windchill factor of minus 10 degrees.  The hardy Colin was in his element as he secured the world title 80 seconds clear of his nearest age rival.  His podium portfolio over 4 decades in Scottish, UK, European and World Championship Events is truly impressive

Cambuslang athletes had the opportunity to participate in a British Masters Championship Event without crossing the border as Dumfries Running Club kindly hosted the Half Marathon.  Erica Christie, Colin Feechan, Justin Carter, Paula McCabe, Steven Fitzpatrick and Mick O’Hagan took advantage of the relatively short travelling distance involved.  Erica and Colin scooped the W65 and M65 gold medals as did Justin in the M50 category while the W35 and M35 silver medals went to Paula and Steven. 

Stefanie Tucker and Ryan Thomson had the honour of representing Scotland on the road in Cardiff and Antrim respectfully.  Stefanie finished 2nd Scot in the 5K and Ryan was the leading Scot in the Half Marathon.

Stefanie picked up the Scottish 5000M Title the week before her Cardiff road run and she was joined on the podium by Andrew McGill and Jamie MacKinnon who scored a one two also in the 1500M event.  This has been a breakthrough season for Anrew, under the guidance of coach Mike Johnston, over 1500M and one mile.  He has spectacularly reduced his 1500M time from 3.44.62 to 3.40.08 which equates to a sub 4 minutes mile and has lowered his mile time from 4.02.74 to 3.59.27and then to 3.55.89.  The latter time puts him 11th on the All Time Scottish List thus narrowing the gap on his Olympian grandfather Frank Clement who is ranked 4th with his time of 3.54.2 from 1978.  Jamie has a proud and consistent record in the Scottish 1500M Championships in recent year having taken 4 outdoor bronze medals and now a silver medal in addition to an indoor silver medal.  U20 Seonaidh MacInnes ran well in his heat to make the 1500M final.  Gavin Smith who had missed much of the cross country season due to injury fractionally missed out on the bronze 5000M medal.  M40 Stuart Gibson was unfortunate to lose a shoe during the same race but he nonetheless gamely continued to the finish.

Cambuslang masters too have been successful in their own Scottish Track Championships.  M60 Chris Upson was the first over the line in his age group 800M and 1500M events while M60 Dave Thom and M65 Colin Feechan triumphed in their 5000M races.   Jacqueline McLew stepped down in distance to collect double bronze medals in the W50 200 and 400M competitions.

Several Cambuslang young athletes contested their U15, U17 and U20 Scottish Track Championships.  Chris Black competed in the U20 800M event.  Rory Barclay set a pb in his U15 800M heat while U17 Daibhidh posted a pb in his 1500M final.  Fellow U17 John Frood doubled up in the 800M and 1500M steeple chase events.  He just missed out on a place in the 800M final and finished 4th in the chase.  The latter 3 athletes who are coached by Iain Reid have had an excellent track season to record pbs over 800 and 1500M.  Other runners coached by Iain have also clocked pbs over the twin distances namely U17 Euan Reid and U17 Angus O’Neil as well as U15 Jack Gillon and U20 Gabriel Murphy.  John and Angus also collected silver medals in the Lanarkshire Championships and Daibhidh secured a bronze medal.       

Cambuslang athletes earned places on the podium at the Scottish 10K Road Championships in Stirling.  The trio of Fraser Stewart, Stuart Donnachie and Gordon Robertson was awarded team bronze medals.  Gordon also gained an individual bronze medal in the M40 category with Justin Carter occupying the same position in the M50 age group.  M60 silver and bronze World Medalist Chris Upson and quadruple M65 European Champion Colin Feechan were the M60 gold and silver medal recipients.  The club had an excellent turnout of 41 participants.  Kirsty Clubb was the leading female representative with a nippy time of 37.52.  She has achieved the necessary qualifying times to represent Shetland in next year’s Nat West Island Games. In the accompanying 3.5K event for young athletes Brooke Walker showed good form to finish 2nd U13 girl.  She went one place further in the Flat’ N Fast 3K at Linlithgow organized by fellow member Callum Matthews.  Her coaches Pamela Stephen and Ross Noble were in attendance to cheer her on.

Club captain Kirsty O’Brien has again had a successful triathlon season.  She has achieved gold medals in the W40 category in the Scottish Aquathlon Championships and Scottish National Sprint Triathlon Championships and W40 silver medals in the Scottish National Mid Distance Triathlon Championships as well as in the Scottish National Standard Distance Triathlon Championships and the Scottish National Duathlon Championships.  There was further success in the Duathlon Championships for members Nathalie Brohan and Jacqui Thomson.  Nathalie was 3rd female overall and 1st in her W45 category while Jacqui took the gold medal in her W60 age group.  Lewis Anderson, Chris Campbell and coach Iain Crawford put in competitive performances in their own age categories.

David Cooney