Lynn McKenna made club history being the first lady to win the Senior Womens National Cross Country title at Falkirk on Saturday and leading her club to the team title. In a superb performance she led almost from the start over the 10km course and won by a large margin of 48secs from Nancy Scott of Edinburgh AC. Lynn has had an incredible season adding the National title to her Inter District Title and her West District Title. Club President Elaine Mackay was delighted to present Lynn with the Bill Scally Memorial Medal and award from the club on Saturday. Lynn will be the first person to win the Shettleston Marathon trophy for the highest finish by a Senior Shettleston athlete in the ScottishAthletics championships. Any club would have been delighted with an individual medal from a member but we had two in the Senior Womens Race!
Brogan Wallace is a name which will not be recognised by too many club members but if you look at Scottish historical data you would see Brogan was a very talented young athlete winning national and district medals. Life took over and university/career meant she disappeared from athletics – she is certainly back with a bang being a surprising medalist when she finished 3rd behind Lynn and Nancy. With new crowned Scottish Internationalist Rosa Donaldson 6th, Emily Carroll 15th, Aoife Carr 23rd and, Birthday girl, Clare Stewart 25th the team title was won by a clear margin of 62pts from Edinburgh. Such was the strength of the team our next six finishers would have been 4th team over all. Cross country captain, Avril Mason was the first female from the club to compete in the National in 2007 when we become a mixed club in finishing 84th in 2004 – We had no team and she was the sole women representative – What a change! We had an incredible 21 women entered for the event and 16 ran – I believe the biggest entry/finishing for the club. This improvement is due to the hard work Avril, John Montgomery and others have put in well done to everyone!
Full results here
Women’s club results below..
| Pos | Name | Category | Gun time |
| 1 | Lynn Mckenna | Sen | 00:35:32 |
| 3 | Brogan Wallace | Sen | 00:37:06 |
| 6 | Rosa Donaldson | Sen | 00:37:56 |
| 15 | Emily Carroll | Sen | 00:39:14 |
| 23 | Aoife Carr | Sen | 00:39:53 |
| 25 | Clare Stewart | Sen | 00:39:59 |
| 40 | Hannah Terrance | Sen | 00:41:15 |
| 42 | Charlotte Mckenna | Sen | 00:41:19 |
| 50 | Charlene Mccallum | Sen | 00:41:58 |
| 57 | Avril Mason | F50 | 00:42:31 |
| 58 | Anna Macfadyen | Sen | 00:42:41 |
| 72 | Ruth Joss | Sen | 00:43:52 |
| 79 | Holly Morrison | Sen | 00:44:13 |
| 85 | Tara Walker | Sen | 00:44:47 |
| 128 | Lily Miller | Sen | 00:47:30 |
| 177 | Naomi Browell | Sen | 00.50.15 |
The men’s team had a lot to live up to after the women’s performances but again they returned to the winning ways to claim bronze in the team competition. The total points for the first 6 finishers was a slender one point ahead of city rivals, Cambuslang. We have an excellent record in the National Cross Country winning 57 team medals (19 Golds, 16 Silver and 22 bronzes).
Taha Ghafari was first over the line for the club finishing 9th overall. After the race he was presented with the Wille Laing Medal and the Flockhart award by the Club President, Elaine Mackay. Again an incredible turnout with 31 athletes finishing the race from the club.
Men’s club results…
Pos 3 Score 178
| Pos | Name | Category | Gun time | Score |
| 9 | Seyd taha Ghafari | Sen | 00:32:01 | 9 |
| 24 | Jamie Burns | Sen | 00:32:49 | 24 |
| 28 | Philip Neilson | Sen | 00:32:58 | 28 |
| 30 | Ross Good | Sen | 00:33:05 | 30 |
| 39 | Lachlan Oates | Sen | 00:33:15 | 39 |
| 48 | Fred Davies | Sen | 00:34:01 | 48 |
| 50 | Jonathan Moore | Sen | 00:34:05 | |
| 68 | Andrew Taylor | Sen | 00:34:48 | |
| 83 | Cameron Muir | Sen | 00:35:27 | |
| 84 | Robert Simpson | M40 | 00:35:29 | |
| 102 | Luke Howard | Sen | 00:36:02 | |
| 140 | Joe Barton | Sen | 00:37:09 | |
| 142 | Jethro Lennox | M40 | 00:37:11 | |
| 145 | David i Houston | Sen | 00:37:19 | |
| 167 | Stewart Houston | Sen | 00:37:47 | |
| 172 | Paul Sorrie | M40 | 00:37:50 | |
| 177 | Andrew Shields | Sen | 00:38:01 | |
| 191 | Calum Oates | Sen | 00:38:45 | |
| 194 | Michael Paxton | M40 | 00:38:50 | |
| 203 | Chris Grant Pantrey | M40 | 00:38:59 | |
| 214 | Iain Burns | M40 | 00:39:16 | |
| 232 | Callum Butterworth | Sen | 00:39:44 | |
| 274 | Gerard Pelegri | Sen | 00:40:35 | |
| 315 | Ross Cruickshanks | Sen | 00:41:53 | |
| 401 | Toby Hession | Sen | 00:44:34 | |
| 405 | John j Duffy | M60 | 00:44:44 | |
| 494 | John Oates | M60 | 00:47:26 | |
| 513 | Gary Fox | M50 | 00:48:01 | |
| 545 | Joseph Haughey | M40 | 00:49:32 | |
| 551 | Stephen Clark | M40 | 00:50:01 | |
| 576 | David Murphy | M50 | 00:51:52 |
It was great to see some fantastic performances by our young athletes in the races earlier in the day over the different age groups.
Zoe Roberts (12) in the U/13 being the pick of these
Young athletes club results…
| Race | Pos | Name | Time |
| U13 girls | 12 | Zoe Roberts | 13:45 |
| U13 girls | 29 | Eilidh Stephen | 14:23 |
| U13 girls | 75 | Charlotte Reilly | 15:22 |
| U13 boys | 30 | Euan Grant | 13:13 |
| U13 boys | 58 | Ciaran Curley | 13:53 |
| U15 girls | 57 | Mairi Stephens | 19:03 |
| U15 boys | 89 | Sam McGowan | 17:51 |
| U17 women | 55 | Kate Monaghan | 28:26 |
| U17 men | 43 | Matthew Fox | 21:46 |
Running in the even more historic English National cross country championships was hill runner Alex Clarkston running for Kent AC. He came in 733rd out of an impressive field of 1,781 in the senior mens race around Parliament Fields in London.
As we finish the Cross Country season we would like to thank all our coaches, parents, officials and athletes for their continually support. Next weekend we see our biggest club event the Allan Scally Memorial Road Relay with over 1000 athletes travelling from around Scotland. We can always do with more help. Come to Glasgow Green (Glasgow Football centre at 11am if you can help).
Belfast Bound for Scott and other parkruns with many personal bests
Many of the club members were in Falkirk, with the the national cross country taking precedent at the weekend with a handful of Shetts at the park runs in pleasant conditions.
Nearly everyone ran Glasgow based park runs with the exception of Scott Mckelvie who ran over in Belfast with a not too shabby time of 17.37 for 7th place. Scott is currently back racing again after his marathon PB at Valencia in 2024 and is training alongside some of his clubmates for the next marathon.
Meanwhile back at Drumpellier Parkrun, Gerard Mason ran 26.25 for 66th position.
At Elder Parkrun Rio Biddlecombe ran a PB of 20.28 for 21st place, Rowan Lennox was next over the finish line in 7th female in 23.06 with Jethro Lennox in 23.07.
Beatrice Baynham-Wainwright ran a PB of 26.31 at Linwood parkrun for 17th in her age category.
At Pollok Parkrun Raymond Loughran continued his sweeper duties in a time of 52.11.
Rebecca and Ellie Ryan were running at t he popular undulating Springburn course. Rebecca finished first in her age group in a time of 28.29 with Ellie finishing 1st also in her age group in a time of 33.13.
At the popular and fast Strathclyde Parkrun course, Kirsten Viera Da Luz ran 25.18 for 22nd female, while Bob Porteous tackled the tough Tollcross Parkrun course in a time of 28.38 for 54th place.