Sunday 3 September 2017

Bronze for Mairi at Scottish Trail Champs

A good number of juniors managed to negotiate an accident on the bypass and the traffic congestion around the Queensferry Crossing mass walk on Saturday to get to Strathmiglo and the Fife Trail Running Festival on the Falkland Estate which incorporated the Scottish Mid-Trail Championships for U15 up.

The festival kicked off with U11 and U13 development races over 3k and in the U11 Boys race Danny Lancaster came home 4th of eleven in 13.18 with first-time Moorfoot racer Kai Keen 7th in 13.31 and Cammie Carlyle 8th in 13.32. (Sounds like they maybe raced as limpets?!) Had there been a team award, the Moorfoot boys would have romped it. Ok, they were the only club with three in it but good show boys.

In the U13 races, also over 3k, Holly Hobbs was 7th of sixteen girls in 13.45 and Angus Carlyle was 9th of fifteen boys in 12.34.

Middle Hobbs sister Megan raced in the U15 age-group over 5k. She has shown good improvement in training in recent weeks and was in a hot race with Rollercoaster star and recent Scottish U15 1500m champ Anna Hedley from the host club chalking up another impressive win nearly two minutes clear of the field. Megan was home in 25.24 for 13th of the fifteen runners.

Mairi Wallace and Beth Hobbs lined up in the U17 race also over 5k and faced a small but strong field of eleven with many recognisable names from the hills and track. Both the girls have unfortunately just missed out on Scotland selection for the Junior Home International on Cademuir on 16 September, the Rollercoaster trial race coming too soon for Mairi after an injury break, but they will still be able to take part in their respective races on Cademuir in two weeks time due to the open entry nature of the races for the British and Irish Championships. Although coach Gregor emphasised that the Fife trail races were prep races for Cademuir, both were keen to put up a good show and keep them in the minds of the selectors in case of any late call-offs. And that they did.

Mairi, U17 for the trail race, but U20 for the hill race due to different age qualifying rules, had a steady first half then moved up through the gears, overtaking Beth with about 2k to go and crossing the line 3rd in 21.19 to take the Scottish Champs bronze medal. She was just over a minute behind winner Grace Whelan, one of the Scotland U20 team for the JHI who was last year's U17 JHI winner. Beth kept on well to finish not far behind Mairi in 4th in 21.36, in the process defeating two of the Scotland U17 JHI team by a fair way. 👏👏👏

Photos here https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNi3Zd0QhrRBMf-dmGGutxojShJOlCRE6x3aMoAxhhgUeBzoEb9y1pN2qB2_iqpew?key=a0pidGhqZ1E4a2tGVFdrckkwc0hhMUZEdUV4aWpB

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