East District XC Relays Report - Full report by the Team Managers
We had a fantastic turnout of both athletes and supporters on Sunday for the East Relay Championships in Livingston with eight teams competing. Fortunately the weather was dry but it was very windy.
The girls were first off with Jemma Jamieson and Fabi Mancini running the first leg for the u13’s. Both girls had a great run finishing 21st and 17th respectively. Leah Davie ran the fastest U15 girls leg on the day and 3rd fastest girl overall managing to pick up 11 places for the A team . Sophie Nethery ran a strong race to improve the B team’s position by 3 up to 14th. The U17 legs were run for the A team by Vhairi Mcatear returning to cross country after three years and for the B team Emily Main who both ran very well and brought the teams home in 12th and 22nd positions respectively from 28 teams entered.
The boys were next up and we had high hopes for our first team of Alex Johnston, James Adam and Aidan Thompson and they didn’t disappoint bringing home the silver medal. Alex had a very strong first leg finishing it in 2nd position just 5 seconds behind the leader from Lasswade. The second leg was very competitive with James taking on the challenge of Lasswade, Edinburgh and Fife AC and managing to bravely hold on to 3rd position having to run part of the race with a stitch. Aidan then ran the third leg with the fourth fastest time of the day to bring the well deserved silver home for the team.
The other three boys teams all ran very well with only 12 seconds separating their combined times – the B team (Liam Gillan, Tyler White and Corey Smith) finished 23rd , D team (Cameron Pearson, Dylan Thomson and Ben Grant) 25th and C team (Arran Robertson, Andrew McNair and William Cain) 26th out of 36 entered.
Finally it was the turn of the men and we had two teams challenging. The A team saw Ben Potrykus lead off and finished strongly in 15th position. Neil Maclaclan completed his leg and handed over in 23rd position to Scott Mcalpine who then passed over in 20th position to Owain Williams. Owain finished well to give the team an impressive 19th position out of 56 teams entered. The 2nd team consisted of both youth and experience with Jeff Farquhar leading the team off. Jeff then handed over to Jack Lawrie and then on to new XC recruit Steven Perrie-Clyde (both running exactly the same time!) Steven then handed over to Iain Roberston to bring the team home in a well deserved 37th place.
Well done to all who took part and also many thanks to all the supporters. Looking forward to the Scottish Relays on 26th October.
Sandra and Kenny
