Moray Road Runners took 9 teams through to Aberdeen last Sunday for the Petrofac Athletics League Final. The Final brings together the top 4 clubs in the North league against the top 4 clubs in the East so it was a tremendous achievement for MRR to have 9 out of their 10 age group teams qualify for the Final. Unsurprisingly, Inverness Harriers and Aberdeen AAC shared most of the spoils in the team prizes but there were some outstanding individual performances from MRR with wins for Joshua Milne (1200m U13 A Race, Blair Milne (1200M U13 B Race) and Harriet Whelan (800m U11 B Race). However, performance of the day went to 10 year old Tamsin Fowlie in winning the 80m. Her time of 11.66 seconds took 0.14 seconds off the existing league record which had stood for 11
years and won Tamsin the meritorious award of Female Track Athlete of the Final. The Bishopmill Primary School pupil said – “it was a complete surprise when they announced my name as I had no idea that I’d broken a record. I love sprinting and can’t wait for the season to start again next year’.
There was further success at national level last Saturday as Moray Roadrunners’ Grace Whelan was crowned the Scottish U15 Mid-Trail Running Champion. The Milne’s High pupil headed a competitive field over the 5K route in Falkland, Fife to claim victory by 35 seconds from her nearest rival. Grace said – “I’ve been training hard this year and racing regularly across Scotland on the track, roads and hills so I’m delighted to win this title. Off-road surfaces are my favourite so I’m really looking forward to the X-Country season starting next month”.
To round off an eventful weekend for MRR, there was victory also for Claire Reilly in the Glenmore 12 hour race, near Aviemore. The challenge is to run as many miles as possible around a 4 mile loop in 12 hours and the nurse from Elgin completed an astonishing 63 miles within the time limit to claim the overall female prize.
Report by: Gareth Jenkins