Strong Sutherland team reels in medals
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YOUNG athletes from East Sutherland have come home with an armful of awards from the North District Cross Country Championships.
A large turnout from East Sutherland Athletics Club (ESAC) travelled to Evanton for the event and it was clear from the offset that, with strong teams from Stornoway, Shetland, Uist and Lochaber being joined by Inverness, Nairn, Elgin and Moray, competition for medals was going to be fierce.
The first gold medal of the day went to East Sutherland when Constance Nankivell won the under-13 girls’ title with a superb display of commitment and pace judgement.
Great support from Helen Gordon (8th), Claire Matheson (20th) and Sophie Morrison (22nd) resulted in a team bronze.
Eoghann Gollan came within one second of taking the individual title in the under-13 boys’ race, but should be delighted with his silver medal as he will be in the same age group next year. He had the added bonus of leading his outstanding team of Fraser Roach (4th), Keir Beaton (6th), Adam Allan (8th) and Taran Squire (10th) to a brilliant team gold.
Catriona Gordon had a fine run in the under-15 girls’ section to claim fourth place, and great teamwork from Rosie Nankivell (9th), Rebecca Matheson (11th), Rebekah Bryan (12th) and Sarah MacDonald (13th), resulted in team silver.
The equivalent boys’ race was full of incident and it took real courage and determination on the part of Ruaridh Oliver-Jones (5th), Angus Mohun (11th), Lewis Holmes (12th) and Ruairidh Gollan (16th) to secure the team silver.
It was team silver again for East Sutherland in the under-17 race for women with Hanna Cleghorn finishing strongly in fifth place, followed by Eilidh Macrae (8th) and Marion Gordon (9th).
The race for under-17 men was packed with quality athletes and Alasdair Coupar battled hard to take a splendid individual bronze medal, followed by Ross Gollan in ninth place.
Finlay Murray completed the race programme for ESAC by taking fifth place in the under-20 section.
In addition to the District Championships, a special development race was held for under-11 athletes and the East Sutherland boys produced an incredible finish with Shane Turney (2nd), Sam Bryan (3rd), Struan Oliver-Jones (4th) and Kenneth Patience (5th).
Catriona Scott (2nd) and Catriona Wilson (5th) also showed good form in the girls’ race.
