Carnethy host British Hill Relays; East XC at Hawick; Cardiff XC

Monday 17th October 2022

Photo by Neil Renton

British Fell and Hill Relays Championships, Saturday 15 October, Broughton Heights

Broughton Heights and the surrounding hills were alive with runners on Saturday – as more than 1000 competed in the British Fell and Hill Relays.

Teams of six raced over four legs and, in the Open Race, Dark Peak were clear the winners with the Ochil Hill Runners finishing in third place.

A last minute call-off saw Sam Wainwright promoted to the team and a reshuffle of legs on Friday night. Sam ran a strong first leg, then the club gradually moved through the rankings.

In leg two, the long-paired leg. Alastair Graves and Fergus Roberts pulled the team up to ninth place to pass onto Ali Macleod and Ross Spalding for the navigation leg.

Ali’s excellent route choice moved the team into third place, and Rory Abernethy ran the glory leg to maintain third place.

Carnethy’s Sasha Chepelin and Ali Masson ran the quickest time on the navigation leg and helped Carnethy to finish in fifth place and Shettleston had a strong performance to finish in seventh place.

Carnethy HRC took third in the M40 and the M50 event, as Westerlands finished third in the M60 competition.

Carnethy HRC took second place in the Women’s race (photo by Neil Renton)

In the Women’s race, Carnethy had an excellent race to finish second overall. They were leading after leg two, where Holly Page and Naomi Lang ran a very strong leg to record the fastest time by three minutes.

Jasmin Paris and Sophie Horrocks maintained the lead and Carnethy led by over two minutes at the end of leg three.

But everything can change in a relay and Ambleside’s Sarah McCormack (formerly Moorfoot) ran a superb leg to overhaul Carnethy and take the win.

Scout Adkin (running for Ambleside) recorded the fastest leg on leg one. Highland Hill Runners raced well to finish in fifth place.

In the W40’s category, HBT won the category with fastest (W40) legs from Megan Mowbray and Clare Ward on the navigation leg and Jill Stephen on the final leg.

In the mixed event Carnethy were third and Ochil HR fifth

It was a great day of racing and thanks to Iain Whiteside for his hard work and to over a hundred marshals who helped make the event a success. Luckily the rain held off until the end of the day.

With thanks to Angela Mudge

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Results from Hawick

Well done to all who competed on Saturday in the East XC League first meeting of the season at Hawick – with a big thank you to all helpers and organisers, too.

Hamish Hickey won the Senior Men’s race to lead last season’s champions, Central AC, to victory.

Sara Green of Gala Harriers won the Senior Women’s race – as Gala took the team race.

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British Athletics website report from Cardiff

A small but determined Scottish cohort headed to Wales for the start of the British Cross Challenge Series in Cardiff last Saturday.

Megan Keith (Inverness Harriers/Edinburgh Uni Hare and Hounds) is now racing at Senior Women’s level and came up with a sixth place finish in a race that was over 6.4k.

The U20 Men’s race had a solid Scottish presence, and Lewis Hannigan of Kilbarchan AAC followed up his recent 10k win in Glasgow with third place. Team East Lothian’s Corey Campbell (still U17 athlete) took 10^th place and Reuben Macdonald of Giffnock North was 15^th.

In the U20 Women’s race, there was a 12^thplace finish for Louisa Brown of Garscube Harriers.

In the lower age groups, there was a superb run at U13 level from Rhuairdh Laing of VP-Glasgow for second place (same time as winner).

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Tags: British Hill and Fell Relays, Cardiff Cross Challenge, Carnethy HRC, East XC League, Hawick, hill running, Lewis Hannigan, Megan Keith