Eleven Harriers headed to Livingston on Sunday to take part in the sun-kissed National 6/4 Stage Road Relay Championships.
This top level event features two races, one for men and one for women, with both races setting off at the same time. Six runners for the men and four for the women would tackle alternate 3.1 and 5.8 mile laps around the streets of West Lothians largest town. Central AC would go on to scoop both golds.
For the first time since the men’s and women’s Relay Championships combined in 1998, Teviotdale were represented in the women’s event. Unfortunately the ladies couldn’t form a full team of four but the three who did run, ran with great determination and merited their small piece in Harriers history.
Lauren Corbett ran the first 3.1 mile leg for the ladies and worked extremely hard to hand over in 28th position, in a time of 21:58. Michelle Short tackled the long 5.8 mile second leg and can be pleased with her performance registering 41:34 and lifting the team to 27th. Kirsty Hughes ran resolutely with a third leg time of 25:08, leaving the trio with a combined time of 1:28:40 and at that point a respectable 30th position out of 38 teams.
Competing for the third year in a row, the men were able to field eight runners. In the ‘A’ team, the short leg runners were Andy Goodair, Kyle Potts and Derek Scott with Greg Walker, Bruce Hughes and Alastair Walker the long. Andrew Gibson led out the ‘B’ team with Alan Coltman running second.
Andy Goodair ran 18:50 for the first leg and crossed in 45th position. Greg Walker ran a storming 33:19 to lift the team to 35th. Kyle Potts ran 20:32 to leave the team in 40th and Bruce Hughes over the second long leg had a time of 34:47 to bring them up to 36th. Derek Scott also gained places running a 19:13 leg to hand over to last runner Alastair Walker in 32nd. Alastair ran an experienced leg in 35:31 and picked up another position to place the team 31st out 57 overall, with a total time of 2:42:12.
Without being able to field a full ‘B’ team, Andrew Gibson still ran a competitive 21:04 and Alan Coltman played his part with a 45:02 long leg.
A Harriers spokesperson said: “With Teviotdale providing three officials for the day and a volunteer race marshal out on the course, the Harriers still continue to leave their mark on these National events.
It was great to see the Women represented today. Although they couldn’t get a full team, the fact that they were in the race is great progress. ”
Alex Corbett’s photos