European CC Callups, SA West District CC Championships, Action Stateside, Parkruns

When the West District Cross Country Championship  Course is organised by  East Kilbride  AAC  area we are always sure it will be an interesting course in terms of the weather and underfoot conditions. They did not disappointed when most of the West of Scotland was covered by a blanket of snow  overnight after a few days of freezing temperatures.

Before we start on the weekend races we must highlight the fantastic achievement of three of our members and the Ladies team again.

What club in the UK or even Europe will have three club members competing in the European Cross Country Championships next weekend in Brussels ? A great Pub question in the future. The answer of course will be Shettleston Harriers. Our athletes will be competing for three different teams and that  itself may be unique.

Lynn McKenna (GB) ,Fionnuala Ross (Ireland ) and Taha Ghafari (European Refugee team)  are all off to Brussels – We wish them all the luck. A number of club members are travelling out to watch and we will get a report on their return.

Last year the Ladies had a outstanding season winning on the country, road and hills and have been rewarded again with selection to represent the UK in the European Clubs Cross Country Championships in Portugal. A great achievement for any club but this will be the second year in  row this has happened. If any club member knows of a company who may want to sponsor the team in making this trip please lets us know. You may be amazed to hear UK Athletics do not provide any support to teams selected and last year the club had to raise £5000 to take the team to Spain.

Moving back to Strathaven and the West District Championships the Ladies  continued their great run of form winning the team title for the 10^th time. With Lynn and Fionnuala resting for the race next weekend it was down to strong quartet of Aofie Carr, Hannah Terrane ,Avril Mason and Elena Hegar  to win the title back from Glasgow University who finished 3^rd behind Cambuslang (2^nd) this year. What was more pleasing was the number  of ladies competing and also the  number of new faces competing

Ladies Team 1^st – Aofie Carr 10^th, Hannah Terrance 13^th , Avril Mason 18^th, Elena Hegar 20^th

Anna MacFadyen 22^nd, Charlene McCallum 24^th, Amy Maclellan 38^th, Emma Baird 40^th

Kirsten Vieira Da Luz 47^th, Emma McKinnon 92^nd

The men’s team had to settle for 2^nd again, the 6^th time in recent years. First home for the men team was Taha Gahafari (2^nd) finishing off his preparation for Brussels before he leaves on Friday. The rest of the silver medal team were Philip Neilson(9^th ), Dan Dry (10^th) ,Sam Lesley (20^th ) Lucas Cheskin(26^th) and Andrew Taylor(27^th ).Four of this team winning their first district medal and 5 different athletes from last years silver medal team ! We have a fantastic record in this championship’s, only been out of the medals in the team competition twice in the last 30 years. With 20 men on the starting  line over a wide range of age groups we were far the biggest senior club to finish.

Further results – Jethro Lennox 38^th ( 3^rd Master), Andrew Shields 65^th, Scott McKelvie 68^th,

Calum Oates 69^th, Andrew Jackson 74^th, Calum Buttersworth 81^st, Denis Williams (1^st M60)

Duncan McCauley 130^th, John Duffy141^st, John Oates 178 (3^rd M60), Walter Bradley 184^th

Stephen Clark 185^th, Xun Zhang 197^th, Richard Millar 221^st

The West District is also the main selection race for the West team for the Inter District event due to take place at Renfrew on the 13^th January. With the first 10 guaranteed a place Shettleston athletes across all age groups were looking to make the teams. With a few members missing due to illness the selectors will have a hard job.

Further results

U/20 Women Gemma Griffiths 7^th

U/17 Women Katie Woods 6^th -Place for District team, Katie Burns 18^th

U/17 Men        Adam Clifford 17^th

U/15 Girls        Daisy Gildea 34th, Imogen Millar 41^st

U/15 Boys        Cameron McArdle 39^th, Sam McGowan 41^st

U/13 Girls        Zoe Roberts 9^th -Place for District team, Charlotte Reilly 34th, Alexia Rigg  45^th      Team 8^th Thanks you to all the club members /parents  who were at Strathaven to bring the tent ,supply the hot drinks, look after the athletes and officiate-We can’t do it with out you !

Jamie Burns was taking part in his first every 5000m indoor race in Boston (USA) over the weekend clocking 14.41.56 finishing 4^th to move to 7^th in the all time lists for his College   

 Parkruns

Icy conditions across Scotland forced most park runs to be cancelled.

Amazingly, there were park runs to report on despite the freezing cold weather and icy conditions.

At Tollcross Parkrun, David Murphy ran 24.47 for 12th position. At Castlewellan Parkrun, it was a new personal best on the course for Ryan Stewart with a time of 16.19 for 1 st place.

At Forfar Loch Parkrun, Melanie Hayes finished in a time of 35.21