Archive news from 2000/2002
Well done to all the Harriers who picked up individual trophies, at the presentation of prizes for the North District Cross Country League 2001-2002, after the last race of the season at Elgin.
The Prize winners were as follows:-
|
2nd Under 11 Boys |
William Jackson |
| 3rd Under 13 Boys | Andrew Rogan |
| 1st Under 15 Boys | Mark Mitchell |
| 1st Under 17 Men | Kyle Greig |
| 2nd Under 17 Men | Ian O'May |
| 1st Senior Lady | Siobhan Evans |
| 1st Senior Man | Graeme Bartlett |
The last race of the North District Cross Country League was held at Elgin on the 9th February, hosted by the Moray Road Runners.
The race of the day was in the Senior Ladies event where it was a straight winner takes all between our Siobhan and Jane Ogilvy of the Moray Road Runners. As their race got under way it looked as though it was going to be a really tight contest. Siobhan gained her winning lead after Jane lost a shoe at the bottom of the 2nd field where it was an absolute quagmire. A determined Jane did not falter and carried on to complete a full lap, until she was once again reunited with her shoe.
Well done to you both, it was a really great season. The senior men's team race was a great contest and the final results were not determined until this race. It was great to see and this was the closest run league Championship for around a decade. Congratulations to Moray Road Runners who won the League with Forres in 2nd and Keith 3rd. Points as follows:
|
1st |
Moray Road Runners | 2219 |
| 2nd | Forres Harriers | 2206 |
| 3rd | Keith & District | 2170 |
| 4th | Inverness Harriers | 2143 |
Thanks to Andy Law and Cathy for providing the Photographic material.
I have now compiled two sets of overall results. The first set is the best 4 from 6 races, which is the format that the league is organised around. The second set is the full results of everyone and all races. Once again these are unofficial, if you spot any errors please let me know and I will rectify them.
Congratulations to all those athletes who competed in all 6 races. I hope that next years races will be better with even more competition.
The Inverness Cross Country was the penultimate race in the league, this is another challenging course that was made even trickier with the soft going under foot. The Harriers were to the fore once more with Kyle Greig wrapping up the Under 17 title with another win over team mate Ian O'May.
Siobhan won the ladies race ahead of Jane Ogilvy of the Road Runners and this means that the league title for the ladies, will not be resolved until after the last race at Elgin in two weeks time. The Pressures on girls!
Mark Mitchell and Graeme Bartlett continued their winning ways and are still unbeaten this season, can they keep their 100% records intact, watch this space.
The men's team competition has been a great contest this season and the Moray Road Runners are in pole position, but after today's results the Inverness lads are mounting a late challenge, we are hanging on to the runners up spot but only just. All this means that we require all our available Senior Men to turn up and compete in 2 weeks time.
The Team positions so far as follows:
|
1st |
Moray Road Runners | 1844 |
| 2nd | Forres Harriers | 1832 |
| 3rd | Inverness Harriers | 1819 |
| 4th | Keith & District | 1815 |
I have now posted the current standings in the league, these show the results including all 5 races so far, the next set that I post will be the final results. Which are the best 4 from 6. So keep looking in to find out how you got on.
Yet again, I must thank Andy Law for taking the photographs of Today's action
What a race to welcome in the New Year, it certainly worked off a lot of that Christmas Excess. The person who said that this was an undulating course was slightly under estimating the severity of it. To quote Graeme Bartlett " I have run easier Hill Races!"
Any way to the race itself the Harriers had another great day, with Mark Mitchell, Kyle Greig, Siobhan Evans and Graeme Bartlett all winning their races. The under 17 Boys also won the team title in their age group with Ian and Alex O'May in 2nd and 5th places respectively.
In the Senior Men's race, Inverness Harriers finally fielded a strong team and went on to dominate the team race, 14 points ahead of Moray Road Runners with the Harriers in 3rd and Keith & District 4th.
In the Senior Men's team Competition it is still a very close race. I have worked out the overall points for the teams so far and these are unofficial. The results are as Follows:
1st Moray Road Runners 1476 Pts
2nd Forres Harriers 1472 Pts
3rd Keith & District 1458 Pts
Thanks to Andy Law, for once again being the Harrier's Press Photographer.
The Harriers have had their most successful day ever in their long history, at the North District Championships. I was very proud of all our athletes, they have all been training really hard for this event and it was great to see them reap the benefits of their labour.
The courses were the usual ones around Grant Park and Cluny Hill. The weather was very mild, but ideal for running.
The first Male home in each of the categories was a Forres Harrier (except the veterans category):- Andrew Rogan (Under 13), Mark Mitchell (Under 15), Kyle Greig (Under 17), Fraser Cartmell (Under 20) and last but not least Graeme Bartlett.
Other medal winners were Ian O'May second in the Under 17 race and Siobhan Evans third in the ladies race.
For the first time in over eleven years, Forres Harriers Senior Men won the Men's team award. It was a great performance by all the lads: Graeme Bartlett, Fraser Cartmell, Paul Matheson, Doug Cowie, Paul Rogan and Steve Hilditch.
Thanks to all the helpers and officials on the day without your help there would be no race.
Again thanks to Andy Law for the Photographs.
Once again the Harriers were to the fore at the second North District Cross Country race of the Season. This race was held at Thurso and hosted by Caithness AAC. This meant an early start for all the competitors as they boarded the bus early this morning.
The race is held over a very challenging muddy field at the top of a cliff, fortunately the weather was kind to the athletes as it is very exposed with very little shelter.
First off were the Under 11 girls and Natalie Hindle had another solid run in second place followed home by Laura MacKenzie and Kim Floyd, to secure the team award. Well Done girls!
Mark Mitchell once again dominated the Under 15 boys race and Kyle Greig maintained his fine form of recent months to secure first place in the Under 17 Boys Race.
Graeme Bartlett stormed around the extremely challenging Senior Mens Course (with its peat bogs and numerous ditches), finishing well clear of second placed athlete Frank Barton.
Thanks to Andy Law for providing me with a copy of all the results. Also a big pat on the back for all those who traveled all that way to compete.
Graeme Bartlett's return to competitive running in the last few weeks has seen him produce some fine performances, the most recent, winning the Meall a Buchaille Hill race at Aviemore. We are led to believe that in far from ideal conditions, Graeme still managed to break the course record. Our Young Harrier Kyle Greig won the Youths Race. Well done lads,
What a busy and successful weekend for the Harriers. On Saturday the North District Cross Country Relays were held at Nairn. The Harriers Youths once again did the club proud and the Senior Men won their first medals at a Championship for a number of years
On Sunday the Seniors were once again in action with 2 teams competing in the Great Glen Fort William-Inverness Relay.
The Dyke 10K organised by the Harriers was a great Success, thanks to all the organisers, marshals, Time Keepers (Andy and Phyllis Law) and of course the competitors.
The Harriers had one of their most successful days at the North District Cross Country League for many a year. Our youngsters were the stars of the day along with Graeme Bartlett who made his first competitive outing for many a month. Well done everyone! I do not have a full copy of the results but I do have some.
One solitary Harrier was competing in the Aberfeldy Half Marathon
It is not very often our younger members get a mention, but our under 11 girls have been in record breaking form in the Grampian League. Natalie Hindle set a Club Record in the 600M her time was 2.03.76. She was also a member of the 4X100 relay Squad along with Laura MacKenzie, Rachel MacDonald and Fiona Mill that ran 67.60 Seconds reducing the Club Record by 2 Seconds.
The Harriers Top Veteran athlete did the club proud in the Scottish Marathon Championships held in Elgin. Dougie Cowie who was running his 48th Marathon, finished Sixth Overall and 2nd Veteran Athlete. However Doug was the first SAL registered Veteran Athlete to finish, so he is now officially the Scottish Veteran Marathon Champion. A Great run Doug!
In the other races the Harriers were well represented, especially in the Half Marathon. Spen Dawes was the first Harrier home in the Half, Closely followed by Paul Rogan and new Club member Steve Hilditch.
A big thank you to Glen Elliott and his team, for another excellently organized event. It must have been a logistical nightmare dealing with the huge amount of late entries. Well Done.
All photos kindly provided by Cathy Matheson and Andy Law.
The Drumnadrochit Highland Games were held in glorious sunshine, which made it hard work for all those runners that participated in the Inverness-Drumnadrochit Road Race.
There were only 10 competitors in the race, which included our very own Alexander MacDonald. The race was won by Scottish 100Km Champion Charlie Noble in 1 hour 35 minutes.
On the track the Harriers were well represented By Kyle Greig and the O'May twins Alex and Ian. With Kyle coming 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the 800m, 1500m and 400m respectively.
The Harriers had a successful day at the Nairn Half Marathon, Paul Matheson 2nd, Chris Spencer 7th (First Vet) and Dale Woodman 13th. This was enough to ensure that Forres were the First Male Team. Well done lads.
The Final Woodland race has just taken place, on behalf of all the participants I would like to thank Siobhan Evans, Michael Milmoe and Stewart Burn for all their sterling efforts, also I must not forget the Committee of Monaughty Village Hall, very well done one and all.
We hope to host these races again next year, if you have any comments to make, so that we could improve these races, please contact us and we will see what we can do.
Finally the man who brought the idea in to reality, a huge thank you to Mark Ellis. Mark has put in a tremendous amount of work to make the Series a success.
The Spynie Hall Forest Trail Run was held on Wednesday for the results click
For Photographs
Congratulations to Mark Ellis on his successful Roseisle Forest Run event. There was a good turn out of athletes, it was nice to see a lot of new faces at this event, for a full set of results click I have developed a new format for showing photographs from races. If you have any comments please let me know.
On behalf of everyone at Forres Harriers, I would like to congratulate Fraser Cartmell on his excellent performances in various Triathlons recently. Especially winning the British Triathlon Association Grand Prix meeting in Pembrokeshire. This result led to his selection for the Great Britain Junior Team, at next months World Championships in Canada.
Best wishes from all at Forres Harriers, and keep training hard.
In the near future there will be a comprehensive results list of all the Athletic events at the Forres Highland Games
Moray Road Runners 10K
The Moray Road Runners 10K was held on Sunday 25 March 2001. 88 hardy souls lined up at the start, to find out how they got on
The Harriers traveled to Livingston on Saturday the 31st of March to compete in the Scottish National Six Stage Road Race Relays. In very blustery conditions, the Harriers came a very creditable 14th overall, which was an improvement of seven places on last years results. The team and times were as follows: Andrew Munro: 17.27, Paul Matheson: 30.57, Mark Priestly: 18.25, Doug Cowie: 32.20, Paul Rogan: 18.24 and Al Black: 33.36. I would just like to point out to Mark and Paul you don't have to run the legs in the same time(only 1 second separated them last year as well!). Also on behalf of the Harriers we would like to say well done to Metro Aberdeen on their fine performance of third overall.
It's that time of year again when thousands of runners punish their bodies, around the Streets of London. Two Harriers were there; Siobhan Evans and Al Black. Al was representing the Royal Air Force in the Inter Services element of the Race . This was Al's last race for the Airforce as he is due to leave the Service at the beginning of May. Al was going really well until the half way point, then he ran into trouble when blisters started to appear on his feet.
He fought through the pain barrier to complete the race in 2:49. Siobhan was pleased with her debut performance at the distance in 3:22.
The Harriers have been on their travels. Five of us made our way to compete in the Bruggen 10 in Germany. While we were out there we bumped in to a Harrier from the Eighties(Nikki Munro), so there were a total of Six in the race, which had a field of 1600. The best Harrier performance came from Doug Cowie who finished first V45 and thirteenth overall. Well Done Doug.
Highland Primary Schools Cross Country
Andrew Rogan had another successful race at the Highland Schools event, in a closely contested event Andrew was runner up in his age group. Keep up the good work Andrew.
Yet again another outstanding result for the HARRIERS. Mark Mitchell has just won the Under 13 Race at the Scottish National Cross Country Championships at Irvine. All I can say, is on behalf of the club once again, WELL DONE.
For more photographs from the Nationals(with a North bias) CLICK ON THE GALLERY
That is the finish of the North District Cross Country for this season. The race was in serious jeopardy of being cancelled, due to the inclement weather conditions of the last week. It was decided on Thursday, that it must go ahead. This meant that a few of us had to get our shovels out on Friday and clear away the ice, to try and make it safer for the athletes. I would just like to say thank you to Ian Johnston and Neil Cowie for spending a couple of hours with myself in preparing the course for today's race.
It goes without saying, that to host a race of this size requires a lot of volunteers to make it run smoothly for us competitors, a big thank you to all of you who helped out on the day, especially Hamish Cameron our dedicated Secretary and Mr dependable Mick Milmo, CHEERS FELLAS.
Any way on to the day itself the weather conditions were ideal but conditions under foot were a wee bit tricky in places. It was disappointing to see so few runners in the younger age groups, a sign of the times I suppose. Well done to all age group winners and if you a set of results will be provided along with a few other bits and pieces.
HARRIER’S NEW SCOTTISH CHAMPION.
Mark Mitchell produced the best performance of his young athletic career at the Scottish Under 13 Boys Athletics Championships held at Inverness Stadium on Sunday 9th July 2000. Mark won the 800 Meters in a new Championship Record, for the Under 13 Age Group. Not content with that, after 20 minutes of rest he lined up at the start of the 200 meters and went on to collect the bronze medal. Well done Mark!
Kyle Hay was unlucky in the 800 Meters for the Under 15 Boys, where he just finished out of the medals in fourth position. It was still a good performance considering the injuries that he has picked up this year.
Let’s not forget about the two men who made it possible for them to be able to compete at this level: Howard Mitchell Junior Team Manager and their Coach Ian Mackenzie. On behalf of the club many thanks for the hours of dedication.
INTER-DISTRICT CHAMPION
Once again Mark Mitchell is the clubs star performer. On Saturday 16 December 2000, he produced yet another outstanding performance, coming second in the Under 13 Boys Race at the Reebok Challenge Cross Country race at Cumbernauld. This race also incorporated the Scottish Inter-District Races, of which he was a convincing winner. WELL DONE MARK!