Caithness runners to the fore on national circuit
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Andrew Douglas, originally from Halkirk and now working in Edinburgh, made his marathon debut in Dublin recently. Andrew had gained a place as an elite athlete along with a very strong predominantly African elite field.
After only four weeks’ full training following a stress fracture, the race was always going to be about testing the distance in preparation for future outings over 26.2 miles. Finishing in 15th place in 2 hours 25 minutes 47 seconds was a tremendous effort and with an injury-free period of training into his next marathon outing, this time is sure to be improved on.
Nearer to home, Emma and Oonagh Dunnett made their first national outing at senior level in the National Cross Country Relay Championships at Cumbernauld.
Emma and Oonagh, who live in Reay, have appeared in this competition for the past three years as under-20 athletes. They were now faced with racing head to head with the best of Scotland’s senior women.
Emma, who had landed a spot in the 1st Edinburgh AC team in the East District championships, did not expect this to be replicated at the national event as some of the stronger Edinburgh athletes were racing on this occasion.
However, due to her performance earlier in Dundee, she once again secured her first team placing and also the honour of taking the team out on the first leg of the relay.
After a strong leg and with her signature fast finish, Emma took the team home in fifth place, only a second behind the fourth placed runner.
The second leg runner, Jenny MacLean, moved the team up one place, with final competitor Gillian Palmer moving up another place to take the team home in bronze medal place. Emma ran 16 minutes exactly for the 4k leg and was the second fastest Edinburgh athlete on the day, behind Gillian.
Oonagh also managed to maintain her place in the second team and ran the final leg which left her with the ominous task of maintaining the good position that the team were in at the final change-over. Oonagh did this with great determination and finished in 16.41min, taking the team home in seventh place.
At a more local level, both girls have now completed two North District cross country league races, with Oonagh finishing fourth in both events.
Emma has dominated the events, winning the senior women’s race at Thurso and Inverness and gaining a maximum 200 points from the first two events.
Also competing at the Inverness fixture was Graeme Taylor, originally from Thurso and now working in Edinburgh. Graeme who, like the girls, is also first claim Edinburgh AC, was on this occasion competing for his second claim club, North Highland Harriers.
In his first outing for NHH, he came home in second place in the senior men’s race, behind Kyle Greig from Forres Harriers, which was an excellent return to competition.
All of the athletes now head south for future events, comprising the Braids Hill Race in Edinburgh for Graeme; the National 4K Championships in Glasgow for Emma and Oonagh; and the Brighton 10K for Andrew.
