Dunnett twins notch up bests at Balmoral
FOR many runners, the transition from cross-country to track or road competitions takes places in March/April, and this makes for cleaner kit and hopefully warmer conditions.
Caithness teenagers Emma and Oonagh Dunnett completed their cross-country exploits in February, cutting the winter season short to prepare for the summer season.
Having brought home a medal haul between them of four individual and four team national medals, there was a lot to look forward to on the track and roads.
The first road race for the junior athletes is the National Road Race Championships in Rouken Glen and despite Emma having medalled the past two years – gold in 2010 and silver in 2011 – she did not have an easy run this year.
Illness continued to be an issue, as it had been at the end of February, and she dropped out of the 5k race, resulting in her not being selected for the London Mini-Marathon Scottish team for the first time in four years.
Oonagh also struggled that day with one of runner’s enemies, the stitch, and despite having led the race earlier with Emma, she finished in fifth place to gain the last selection place for London.
London provided her with the opportunity to prove just how the cards should have been stacked at the selection race as she finished first Scot in 18th place and in a time of 18.00 min.
This performance saw her improve her previous run in the capital by 33 seconds and 24 places higher up.
Scotland finished seventh team overall which was disappointing having placed fifth the previous year. Both Emma and Oonagh then moved on to Balmoral where they had been invited to take part in the 5k.
Balmoral races offer a festival of primary, secondary, one-mile, 5k and 10k road races and culminate in a 15-mile multi-terrain event. With 5000 runners competing over the weekend, runners are guaranteed some company along the way.
Balmoral is not known for personal best performances, due to the undulating nature of the courses around the estate, however, it attracts the best athletes in Scotland with no fewer than seven internationally capped senior athletes taking part in the 5k alone.
Although Emma and Oonagh were still only 16 years old, they competed on the road along with senior athletes and, due to the ideal opportunity they have to train with the North Highland Harriers’ seniors, this causes them no concern.
With Emma still unsure as to her race fitness and Oonagh recovering from the marathon trip to London the previous weekend, both girls headed out at a conservative pace and wound the race up as they hit the 1k mark.
At 3k, Emma was lying third female and Oonagh was fifth, some 400m behind her.
With the remainder of the course winding downhill, the girls opened up their stride and hit for home, with Emma taking second female behind Banchory internationalist Rhona Auckland and sixth overall in the race. Oonagh took fourth female and 15th overall. Emma’s time of 17.55 min was a personal best by 18 seconds and Oonagh shaved three seconds off her personal best with a finishing time of 18.44 min.
The Caithness runners now take to the hills for the National Hill Running Championships in a week’s time, which also acts as a selection race for the World Hill Running Association International which will be held in Ireland towards the end of June.
They follow that with the Castle of Mey 10k, all in the space of a weekend. Also competing at Balmoral was Andrew Douglas, from Halkirk, running for Inverclyde AC, who won the 10k for the second time in three years in a time of 31.33 min, and Jack Trevelyn, North Highland Harriers, who finished in sixth place in a time of 36.25 min.
Andrew is next off to Denmark this weekend for a half-marathon international as part of a Scottish select team before getting back into training for the Edinburgh half-marathon at the end of May.