County's Dunnett girls close the gap
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THE first championship cross-country race of the session saw Caithness runners Emma and Oonagh Dunnett joining their Edinburgh Athletic Club team mates in Dundee.
The East District Cross-Country Relay Championships is always a popular event as it marks the start of the season but at the same time it creates a headache for team managers in making the correct selections.
For many this is not an issue if running only one team, but with Edinburgh having the depth of talent to enter five teams for the junior girls alone, the selection order of individuals is a challenge but at the same time crucial to the final placings of the teams.
Emma and Oonagh, from Shebster, were delighted to have landed their places in the “A” and “B” teams respectively They are made up of one athlete each from under-13 under-15 athlete and under-17 sections, with the older athlete running the final leg of the 2.5k relay.
The Caithness twins as under-17s had to wait for just under 20 minutes before they headed out on the final leg of the relay for their respective teams.
At the end of the first under-13 leg, Edinburgh “A” team were well placed in second but had given away an 18-second advantage to Pitreavie AAC who were defending the title they won last year.
Edinburgh “B” had fallen victim to the selection issues and the under-13 runner came in fourth out of the Edinburgh teams and seventh overall after the first leg. The “B” under-15 runner made up some of the lost ground to finish her leg in fourth place and the Edinburgh “A” runner maintained the second place overall.
Emma headed out on the final leg some 38 seconds behind Pitreavie’s Michaela Brown, but this gap played to Emma’s strength as she excels in the chase of the relay event, having played a pivotal role in Edinburgh AC winning the national championships for the past two years.
On this occasion she caught and passed the Pitreavie runner by halfway round the course and, not satisfied at this, she took Edinburgh “A” team home to victory with a 38-second lead completing the course in 8.37 minutes, recording the fastest lap time of the day.
Oonagh, on the other hand, headed out in fourth place with a three-second gap to make up on Edinburgh “D” and she quickly moved her team into a medal-winning place.
Oonagh continued to work well through the middle section of the race and as she approached a wooded section with 800m to go she had the second-placed runner in her sights.
Oonagh took Edinburgh “B” team home in silver-medal position – with a 12-second lead over third-placed Pitreavie AAC – in 8.52 minutes, the third fastest lap time of the day.
The twins next head south to Cumbernauld for the National Relay Championships on October 22 when Emma will run in the “A” team again and hope to repeat the victory of last year. Oonagh has been given the “C” team placing as fellow Edinburgh runner Rachel Dunn returns to competition.
