Sunday 6 November 2016

Fast and Furious at Scottish Short Course XC Champs

Renfrew was the new venue for the Scottish Short Course Cross Country Champs on Saturday  and there was some fast and furious racing for the few juniors who made the journey through on a fine if chilly day with a biting strong breeze testing the layers of the spectators. It was by no means a target race, falling as it does during the early winter base-building phase with near half-distance race lengths and an entirely flat (and pretty boring) course round the perimeter of football pitches, so it was one for the speed merchants.

In the U15 Girls race over 2km, Charlotte Clare was surprised by the early pace and found herself 3/4 of the way down the field of 109 runners at the first turn after 300m. From there however she steadily made ground through the field finishing all-out for 25th in 8.05. Whilst the 30 second gap to the podium places would still have been out of reach, it would only have taken a 10 second improvement for a top ten finish to have been achievable with a stronger start. Charlotte Morrison ran well for 52nd in 8.37 with Eilidh Mooney a bit tapped for toe but just behind in 58th in 8.41.

Craig Angus had another good run in the U15 Boys race also over 2km. He was another to find the pace pretty hot but kept up a good sustained tempo to finish 34th of 102 runners in a time of 7.30.

Kobe Stevens was mixing it with the big boys in the combined senior/U20 race over 4km in a humungous field of 364. I'm afraid by that time your author had departed so can't comment on his run but he finished 33rd U20 and 123rd overall in 14.12.

Two Moorfoot trained Lasswade athletes were also in action in the U17 3km races, Ailsa Innes helping Lasswade to team bronze with a very solid run for 18th in 12.23 and Euan Hood just making the top 50 in 10.58.

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