National Championships

The National Championships at Falkirk on Saturday were held in beautiful weather with only a wee smirr of rain on the second lap of the Senior men's race. The turnout from the club was disappointing but those who competed all did very well. In the Ladies race Kath Scott had to drop out with a thigh strain which meant that Marina McCallum was the club's first finisher and Christine Duncanson was the second Harrier to cross the finishing line: both were rightly delighted with their performances but the actual results were not available on the day because the printer had jammed! How bad was that for the National Championships???

The men's team was led home by Prasad Prasad who finished in the high twenties - at the end of the first lap he was running 27th and at the end of the second he was 28th but with all the lapping going on at the end it was hard to get the counting right and, as I said, the scottishathletics printer and copier jammed and we couldn't get the result that way. Next club man to finish was club champion Ian Robertson with Paul Carroll right behind and Michael Diver not far back. That was the first four in and then Bobby Rosborough was fifth club man to finish (how many nationals is that, Bobby?) with Peter Rudzinski making up the team's counting runners in his 26th consecutive national championship. Gary Dick also ran and dropped out - he was clearly still suffering from his recent prolonged illness and it is to his credit that he travelled through to Callendar Park and made the effort.

The conditions were perfect, the organisers had added a hill at the middle of the 'back straight' (halfway along the pond the trail turned up the hill - quite short but VERY steep) and added a bit of interest for Prasad but a bit of extra work for everybody else. The races were good to watch with surprise results, a sizeable crowd of spectators and over 500 starters in the Senior Men's race. I didn't see the earlier races and once I get the results I'll put them up.