April 9th, 2024

March was a successful month for Cambuslang Harriers with their athletes flying the red and white flag in championship events in England, Scotland, Wales and in Poland.

In the opening March weekend the U15 trio of Daibhidh Kinnaird, John Frood and Euan Reid along with U17 athlete Sam McCarthy had the honour of representing the West of Scotland in the UK Intercounty Cross Country Championships held at Nottingham.  Daibhidh rose to the occasion to cross the line in 9th place and led the West Team to victory in the face of fierce opposition from the cream of his UK peers.

 A week later the senior men team of Fraser Stewart, Mike Christoforou and Colin Reilly lifted the team silver medals in the Scottish Half Marathon Road Championships at Inverness.  Colin and Andrew Carey who finished just behind him both set pbs as did M50 silver medallist Justin Carter and M40 Andrew Anderson.   Erica Christie also made the podium by achieving the bronze medal in the W60 category.

The following week the under 15 boys trio comprising individual bronze medallist Daibhidh Kinnaird, Euan Reid and Angus O’Neil captured team gold in the Scottish Young Athletes Road Championships at Inverclyde.   For the record Stewart Orr in 2008 was the last U15 boy to gain an individual medal and the last team medal went to Robbie Woods, Lewis Roddis and Zak Povey in 2019.   There was an added bonus for both Daibhidh and Euan as they gained automatic selection to their Scottish age group team for the London Mini Marathon.  John Frood provided close backup support.  The U17 men featuring Zach Seenan, Chris Black, Gabriel Murphy and Alex Gillies all ran strongly to take 4th place in their team event.  In the opening event U13 girl Holly Brooke was just outside the top ten while Eve Campbell in her first year in this age group performed well as did Aiden O’Connell in the under 13 boys’ event.

On the same weekend M65 Colin Feechan and M50 Justin Carter journeyed to North Wales for the British Masters Cross Country Championships.  Both returned with bronze medals in their age categories.  M60 Chris Upson who would have also been a medal contender in Wales was elsewhere participating in the European Masters Championships in Poland.  By way of a warm up he duly won the Torun Parkrun setting an M60 course record and then the next day he ran away from his rivals in the latter part of the 3000M Indoors to take the gold medal in the fast time of 9.48.87.  among the scalps he took were those of the defending European Champion and the current World Record holder.   Two days later he also added the M60 European Cross Country silver medal to his collection and also led his GB compatriots to the team silver medals.  Four more races on consecutive days still lay ahead of Chris.  He posted the quickest qualifying 800M heat time setting a pb of 2.19.04 but had to settle for 6th place in the final.   Again in the 1500M he set the quickest qualifying time and in the final towed the field round the first 1K before being shunted back to 4th in the closing stages.  Chris’ hectic schedule of 7 races in 8 days had caught up with him.  Nevertheless, his time of 4.38.99 was an indoor pb and the fastest ever indoor 1500M by an M60 Scottish club athlete.

The next event on the racing calendar was the Scottish Senior/Masters Men and Women Road Relays at Livingston.  In spite of a number of key absences  due to injury and illness all the teams put in spirited performances.  Both the M50 team of Dave Thom, Brian Douglas, Colin Feechan and Jamie Reid and the M40 sextet comprising Gary Lyon, Iain Reid, Paul Kernohan, Ian Hodge, Stan MacKenzie and Gordon Robertson finished just outside the medals in 4th spot.  The Senior Men’s A Team of Chris McLew, Jamie MacKinnon, Andrew Carey, Mike Christoforou, Colin Reilly and Fraser Stewart occupied 7th place while the B team consisting of debutant Stuart Donnachie, Callum Matthews, U20 Lewis Roddis, Steven Fitzpatrick, Dan O’Connell and Kevin Farmer were one place behind the M40 squad.   The Senior Women’s Team finished a respectable 11th thanks to Marie Kane, Lesley Hughes, Rachel Wardrope and Zara Higgins.  Erica Christie produced the quickest W60 time of the day on the opening leg for an incomplete B team.

24 hours later M45 John Speirs contested the Scottish and UK 50K Road Championships held at Perth.  He exceeded his expectations by scooping 3 gold medals.  He was crowned the Scottish Champion, the Scottish M40 Champion and the British M45 Champion.   John is following in the footsteps of 3 other Cambuslang Scottish 50K gold medallists namely Jamie Reid in 2004, Jack Brown in 2011 and Kerry-Liam Wilson in 2019.  This event was also worthwhile as it provided him with a good over distance workout before the upcoming London Marathon.   The club can be proud that both Fraser Stewart and Ryan Thomson have been allocated places in the elite starting line at London.

The Scottish 10 Miles Road Championships was incorporated into the 60th Running of the Tom Scott Memorial Event on the last day of March.  The senior men retained their Scottish title thanks to individual bronze medallist Ryan Thomson, Mike Christoforou and M40 Gordon Robertson.  Unfortunately there was no M40 team award.  However, close packing by Gordon, Iain Reid and Ian Hodge in 4th, 5th and 6th positions would have given them the title. There was further individual medal success for M50 Justin Carter and M60 Colin Feechan who secured gold medals and Erica Christie was awarded the W60 silver medal.  Several athletes recorded personal bests including Ryan Thomson, Steven Fitzpatrick, Mark King, Georgia Freeman-Mills, Paula McCabe and Chris Paton.  Chris lowered his pb by an incredible 11 minutes which was testimony to the consistent training he has been putting in.  There were also promising debuts at this distance for Iain Wallace, Marie Kane and Julie Reid.  Georgia, Marie and club captain Kirsty O’Brien brought the senior women home in 7th place.  Other competing club athletes in finishing order were M50 runners Mark King, Mick O’Hagan, Mark Gallacher and Dan O’Connell along with Suz Ross.

Numerous non championship events were held throughout March.  Cambuslang Harriers entered a senior women’s team for the first time in the Allan Scally Road Relay organized by Shettleston Harriers and held in Glasgow Green.  After some late call offs due to unforeseen illnesses club captain Kirsty O’Brien and Catriona Bain were drafted in to the team.  Both played their part in supporting 2nd fastest female of the day Zoe Pflug and 4th fastest Stefanie Tucker to 3rd place in the team competition.  One of the athletes to pull out was Eve MacKinnon who was recently announced as 3rd senior female athlete in the Scottish Athletics Grand Prix Cross Country Series.

The club’s own 15th Down by the River 10K and 3K races were held on the 10th March.  Course record holder Fraser Stewart of the home club and 5 times winner of the event was contesting the Scottish Half Marathon Championship that very same day.  Therefore, a new winner would emerge from the field of just over 200 declared runners.  Corstorphine AC’s Dermot Cummins seized his opportunity to take the title 45 seconds clear of Tony Connelly of Bellahouston Road Runners.  With M40 status only a few weeks away Dermot is coming into form again.  Bella Road Runners with their counting 3 runners in 2nd, 3rd and 5th spots captured the male team prize from the host club whose athletes, Steven Fitzpatrick, Ian Hodge and Mark King were in 4th, 7th and 8th.   Nearby neighbours Newton Road Runners finished a promising 3rd in the team competition.  However, there was no stopping the Cambuslang female trio of Lesley Hughes (3rd), Kirsty Wright (4th) and Nathalie Brohan (6th) who successfully defended their team title.  The first 2 females, Jennifer Wetton of Central AC and Alicia Paton of Cumbernauld AAC were inside the course record.  Each year the club presents the Jimmy Sands Memorial Shield to the first male and female Cambuslang runner to finish and also the Jim Fitzpatrick Memorial Shield to the club’s leading male and female master.  Both shields are in honour of 2 former club stalwarts.  This year the senior awards went to Steven and Lesley with the masters’ awards going to Ian and Nathalie.  The Cambuslang pair of Mark King and Eilidh Kennedy scooped the M50 and U20 female prizes. Outside of the top 4 male Cambuslang runners 11 others posted times between 36.17 and 39.49 namely Tom Adams, M50 Brian Douglas, Kevin Farmer, U17 Alex Gillies, M40 Paul Kernohan, M40 Iain Murphy, Dale Woods, M40 Gary Lyon, Nick Saunderson, M40 James O’Neill and M50 Mick O’Hagan.  The club’s 2 leading female athletes Lesley (38.19) and Kirsty (39.27) were comfortably under 40 minutes but spare a thought for Nathalie and Georgia Freeman-Mills who missed that barrier by 1 second and 6 seconds respectively.  The remaining 8 female runners clocked times of between 41.33 and 49.06 in the finishing order of W45 Kirsty O’Brien, Zara Higgins, Marie Kane, Paula McCabe, W40 Julie Reid, Rachel Wardrope, Eilidh and W40 Suz Ross.  M50 Gary Miller (40.20) led the sub 50 minutes charge of 10 other Cambuslang males – M45 Iain Nicholl, Scott Faulds, M50 Iain Wallace, M55 Dan O’Connell, Ronnie Islip, Ross Noble, M55 Paul Donaldson, M50 Chris Paton, M45 Iain McLachlan and M70 Sandy Eaglesham.

The accompanying 3K event featured young athletes in the U11 to U15 age groups. U15 Brian Heslop of East Kilbride was the overall winner and was followed home by the Cambuslang U13 duo of Brooke Walker and Eve Campbell.  U13 Aiden O’Connell finished 2nd male.  There were good workouts too for U11 Sophia Ewart and U13 Iona Campbell.

Club president Des Dickson was delighted with the time and effort put in by numerous club volunteers in organizing and delivering the event successfully on the day.  Special thanks are also due to members Barnie Gough and Iain Murphy and Tunnock’s for their kind sponsorship.

The Battersea Friday Night 5K under the Lights kicked off the following weekend’s athletics activities and attracted Cambuslang athletes Callum Tharme and Craig Jardine who are currently working in the London and Oxford areas.  In a tight race to the line Callum (14.27) just lost out by the slender margin of 3 seconds.   Craig clocked a solid time of 16.06.  The Alloa Half Marathon on the Sunday attracted 9 Cambuslang athletes.  For the 2nd week in a row Steven Fitzpatrick, with a pb clocking of 73.22, was the first club runner over the line.  Former club captain Richie Carr (78.25) in marathon preparation was next with Gerard Higgins, M40 Paul Kernohan and James Smith following up all inside 86 minutes and 12 seconds.  Kirsty Wright (88.41) continued her good form to lower her pb by 4 and a half minutes.  Fellow M40 runners Iain Nicholl and Chris Campbell along with Kirsty’s husband Callum all finished within 3 minutes of one another.  Chris had the satisfaction of setting a pb of 91.49 while Callum was taking the opportunity to ease himself back into competitive racing after illness.  On the same day but in much warmer conditions new member Stuart Donnachie and Moira Stewart lined up in the Lisbon Half Marathon.  Stuart emerged as the leading UK male and 16th overall in the open competition.  His commendable time of 72.29 in the humid conditions was only 1 minute and 42 seconds out with his pb.  Moira was participating in the female elite race as part of her build up for the Olympic Marathon in Paris in August.  Given the sultry conditions she was pleased to register a time of 72.38 which placed her 11th behind 8 African and 2 other European competitors.   Back in Scotland former West District Senior Cross Country Champion Kyle McLellan earned 3rd spot in the tough Callander 10K race.

The 3K on the Green which is normally held on the last Friday of the month was brought forward a week to avoid a clash with the Good Friday Holiday.  In very wet and windy conditions Cambuslang supplied the leading female and male.  Zoe Pflug finished 6th overall in the excellent time of 9.55.84 while Rory Muir in his debut for the club ran strongly to clock 9.09.06.  Triathlete Lewis Anderson just missed out on breaking 11 minutes by 4 seconds.  M50 Iain Wallace set a pb of 12.18 while M60 Eddie Carr dipped under 13 minutes by 1 second whereas M50 David Wardrope was 1 second over 13 minutes.  Club coach Iain Crawford was 14 seconds behind David.  M70 runners Sandy Eaglesham and Peter Ogden returned the very respectable times of 14.11.70 and 14.34.71.  That same evening M50 Richard Cooper took part in the Run the Blades – The Night One 10.4K. This is a trail run with a difference as the event takes place in the dark within Whitelee Wind Farm, the UK’s largest onshore windfarm.  Competitors have to navigate their way round with the assistance of glow sticks and the strength of their own head torch.  Relishing the challenge Richard came home 4th overall to clinch the first master prize.  On the Sunday Zara Higgins (42.37) who had the previous day covered a long leg in the Scottish Road Relays displayed good stamina to win the first female prize in the Kelvingrove 10K.

Callum Tharme had a very busy and successful Easter weekend racing schedule on the Isle of Guernsey.  On Good Friday he broke the 5K road course record setting the fast time of 14.27 to beat fellow Scot Max Milarvie by 3 seconds.  However, Max managed to reverse the positions in the 2 subsequent events, the Keith Falla Memorial Cross Country and the Easter Monday 10K.  In the longer event both athletes pushed one another to the fast times of 30.23 and 30.30.  Over the same weekend Jacqueline Etherington made a welcome return to racing after a 5 months injury spell to finish 6th W45 in the North Tyneside 10K.

David Cooney