National XC Champs Report

 

Decent conditions greeted the fourteen Moorfoots who took on the National Cross-Country Championships at Callendar Park, Falkirk on Saturday with dry, breezy conditions and not too much of the pre-publicised glaur. And at the end of the day, five of the fourteen returned home with a medal. That’s a 36% medal success rate!

I say home although of course Scout Adkin is now based in the Lake District and is now coached by Scottish Hill Running’s HRH Angela Mudge. But her blood still runs red and blue and it’s the Moorfoot vest she dons when racing in Scotland. Having shown good form in several cross-country races over the winter, as well as on her more usual terrain in the hills, Scout was confident enough to set off from the gun mixing it with the Senior Women’s race favourite GB Internationalist and defending champion Mhairi Maclennan of Inverness Harriers, past winner Morag Millar of Central, and up-and-coming Holly Page of Edinburgh University. These four soon broke away on the first of three laps over the 10km course, establishing an early gap on the chasing pack of 264 other runners which included a second Moorfoot in Jennifer Misak.

 As they set off on lap 2, Maclennan started to pile on the pressure from the front and only Scout (now minus her discarded headband which was superbly caught left-handed by a watching specator!) could live with the pace as Millar and Page dropped back. But approaching half-way the leader’s relentless tempo had begun to tell, a 5-second gap opening up between her and Scout who held the same time advantage over Page and Millar. Throughout the third and final lap, Maclennan drew further and further clear as she headed for her third Nationals title, but Scout was maintaining a good grasp on 2^nd place, the gap back to third and fourth extending to 13 seconds with half a lap to go.

Over the closing stages, the experienced Millar got the better of the student Page and was in hot pursuit of the Moorfoot vest ahead, but the gap was too big and come the finish line, Scout took the silver medal with a comfortable 12-second cushion to spare, casually stopping her watch at 37.27 as if finishing a training run rather than her first ever National Cross-Country medal!

Jennifer Misak finished in 89^th place in a time of 46.49, comfortably inside the top 100 and only marginally over 10 minutes behind the winner. Solid stuff indeed.

Earlier in the day, Kieran Fulton ran a well-controlled race to take the bronze medal in the Under-15 Boys race. With all his training having been geared to racing over 800m indoors since his East District XC title success in early December, the 4.3km distance was expected to be a bit of a shock to the system, but Kieran paced his race well, sitting top ten early on, then moving into 6^th approaching half-way. The front two runners were out of sight but the gap to 3^rd was less than ten seconds as they climbed the last hill through the village of club tents with about 1500m to go and Kieran was working hard to reel in the bronze medal contenders. As they hit the far turn he was into 5^th and the gap was down to just 15 meters with his favoured distance of 800m remaining. From there he proved too strong for the others over the closing stages, taking the bronze medal in a time of 14.51 with four seconds to spare over 4^th place.

 Thomas Hilton, having missed several weeks of training with a broken wrist and damaged hip after falling off his bicycle early in January, ran superbly to finish 9^th in 15.16. And with Shaun Pyman and Luke Grieve placing well up the field of 138 runners in 44^th (16.42) and 57^th (17.03) respectively, that gave the Moorfoot team 113 points for the team bronze, a fantastic achievement for such a wee club.  Hats off too to our fifth runner James Moore who seemed to run with a permanent smile for 85^th in 17.47.

 First to race in the Moorfoot vest on the day was Nina McDowell in the Under-13 Girls race over 3.2km. Nina was having only her second cross-country race and she will still be in the same age-group next year.

The adrenaline must have been really pumping on the start line as she was right up there at the front of the cavalry charge in 2^nd place at the top of the first rise after 300m, with another 138 runners in her wake! Thereafter she settled into a good rhythm and crossed the line in 37^th place in a time of 14.25, all the better for the experience.

 Ruaridh Pearson was our sole representative in the U13 Boys race and he had a very solid run for 48^th out of 124 in a time of 13.25. And in the Under-15 Girls race over 4.3km, Elena Lee conquered some breathing issues to finish 42^nd in a field of 112 runners with a time of 18.51 and Ava Mooney dug in well for 60^th in 19.47. Our third runner Sabine Jefcoate had an issue with her timing chip but while she doesn’t appear in the provisional results, photographic evidence shows her to have finished 57^th in an estimated time of 19.33.

 

The Senior men’s race over the same three laps as the Senior women saw a mammoth field of 624 finishers. Just the two Moorfoots were in action. Milan Misak was 187^th in a time of 40.15 and Colin Williams 234th in 41.46. I’m afraid I don’t know the story of their runs ‘cos I was long gone by then!

But you can watch extended highlights of each race and play spot the Moorfoot vest on Vinco Sport at this link:

https://www.vincosport.com/videos/146505/

You will need to register with the site but doing so is free.