December 14th, 2018

The senior and masters men teams again stuck team gold while the under 20 and 17 men took silver medals and the under 15 girls and boys bronze medals.  There were individual silver medals for under 17 Christopher McClew, under 20 Gavin Smith and masters men Ben Hukins while Iain Reid captured the masters men bronze.

The first event of the day was the under 13 girls with Abbie McClue leading home Eva Ritchie, Lucy McGrandle and Morvern Crawford into 5^th spot in the team race.  The under 13 boys trio of Sam McCarthy, Brodie McDonald and Hamish Gardiner finished in 8^th position with back up coming from Gavin Kelly, Chris Black and Alex Petrie.  Niamh Riggins, Shona Carey and Eilidh Kennedy secured team bronze for the under 15 girls while the under 15 boys matched this performance thanks to Robbie Woods, Lewis Roddis and Zak Povey with Feargus MacGregor next home for Cambuslang.  In finishing 7^th and 8^th Robbie and Lewis have secured automatic selection to the West District Team for the forthcoming Scottish Inter District Championships in the New Year.

The under 17 and under 20 ladies ran together albeit the latter had extra distance to cover.  Susie McLaughlin finished 11^th in the younger age group with Amy Craig 9^th in the under 20 race.  Susie too should gain selection for the Inter District Competition.

The same format applied to the under 17 and 20 men.  The under 17 trio of Christopher McClew, Ruairidh MacGregor and Michael Black finished a good second and all confirmed their place for the Inter District Event.  Kai Newall provided back up.  2^nd placed under 20 Gavin Smith led Jamie MacKinnon and Drew Pollock to team silver with Andrew Carey in support.

The combined senior and masters women event saw Cambuslang finish 8^th team thanks to Kirsty O’Brien, Jennifer Reid, Bernie O’Neil and Lesley McArdle.  All four ran well in the driving rain and in the increasingly muddy conditions.

The senior and masters men lined up for the final event of the day with the weather rapidly deteriorating.  However, this did not deter the Cambuslang men.  Right from the gun it was clear that it would be a close encounter between Cambuslang and Shettleston Harriers for the top team spot.  This proved to be the case throughout.  Although Shettleston had their 6 counters home in the first 17 positions compared to Cambuslang’s 6 in the top 18 Cambuslang prevailed by 9 points.  The club’s tight packing of Fraser Stewart 4^th, Alasdair Campbell 5^th, Kevan Harvey 6^th, Ryan Thomson 8th, Stuart Gibson 16^th and Ben Hukins 18^th ensured the gold medals were going back to Cambuslang.  Fraser, Alasdair, Kevan and Ryan have booked their places for the senior district team with under 20 Gavin also being a contender.

The harriers have an outstanding record in the senior competition having medalled on 41 occasions out of the last 44 years to win 25 gold, 12 silver and 4 bronze medals.  From the 1975 team which won the club’s first senior district medal Robert Anderson and David Cooney are still heavily involved with the club.  The masters’ team victory with Ben 2^nd, Iain Reid 3^rd and Justin Carter 7^th was achieved more comfortably from Shettleston and Garscube Harriers.

Craig Jardine and Iain Red in 19^th and 21^st position finished closely behind Ben.  Thereafter, the Cambuslang runners crossed the line in the following order – Alistair Campbell, Justin, Ritchie Carr, Matthew McKenna, Iain Nicholl, Mick O’Hagan, Dave Thom, Des Dickson and Eddie Carr.

Well done to all our competitors today given the challenging weather and conditions.  Thanks are also due to the club’s back up team of coaches, officials, supporters and parents and also to the West District Organising Committee and to Kilmarnock Harriers.

David Cooney
Photgraphy ©Colin Stephen