Girls in the West District

The girls who ran in the West District Championships should all go on to be excellent Senior athletes. It has been some time since we had teams of girls and boys wanting to run Cross Country and we should be really pleased about it. Kirsty Alexander finished in 48th on the first stage in 11:41 with Caitlin Dick ten places back in 12:31. On the second stage, Roisin McShea picked up an astonishing thirteen places to be 35th in 10:21 - in the first half of the field a gain of that many places is outstanding. Behind her Diane Nicholson for the B team picked up a
very good fourteen places to be 44th in 12:51. With no B runner on the last stage the very promising Claire Reid moved up to 30th with a time of 10:34. The B team lost out because of illness when Rachel Busby was forced to withdraw. The boys team started with Andrew Hunter who was 51st in 11:50; he was followed by David Campbell who picked up to 46th in 10:50 and David Newton on the last stage ran in in 40th in a time of 10:18 which was the club's fastest on the day.

The girls could do well in the years to come but they really need more role models: the boys go to the cross country and road championships and see the senior men running well and listen in on their conversation and talk to them on the day. The girls do not have this luxury. Other than Marina, the women in the club seem reluctant to come to the relays or championships. Girls who are endurance runners have particular difficulties that boys do not have - I have written earlier about the female triad, Liz McColgan is on a bit of a crusade nationwide (ie GB wide) about women working with girls - and it would be good if more women were at the cross country championships, even if not running but just as friends and sources of information for the girls. No matter how much a man knows about the subject, many maybe even most, young girls are reluctant to discuss some things with him. The County Relays are this weekend and all age groups will be present and the National Relays are the following Saturday.