East District League, Stirling University and National Cross Country Relay Championships, Cumbernauld - 17 & 24/10/2009

Two Caithness athletes continued their intense competition schedule, with the second and third competitions in as many weeks. Emma and Oonagh Dunnett competed in the first of the East District League races at Stirling University a fortnight ago and then followed this with the National Cross Country Relay Championships in Cumbernauld last weekend. The East League fixtures use combined starts for various age groups which led to Emma and Oonagh lining up with their own age group, the Under 15 Girls, plus the Under 15 Boys and the Under 17 Women; a total of 89 runners.

This provided an ideal opportunity to deal with the challenges of mass starts as athletes jostled for the best racing lines. The 3.2k course was run over two circular loops and was undulating in nature with a mixture of grass, woodland and paths. Emma and Oonagh managed to negotiate the start which funneled into a narrow section after 150m and both girls headed out onto the course shoulder to shoulder.

Oonagh, running with a pleasing degree of confidence maintained a steady pace throughout the first lap, tying slightly in the middle section of the second lap. She completed the course strongly in 12.13min, 15th overall in the combined Under15/Under 17 Girls race and 10th Under 15 runner. Along with Rosanna Stewart (12th) and Blair Wood (18th), the Edinburgh 'B' team finished 3rd behind Pitreave AAC.

Emma meanwhile settled into 3rd place over the first lap of the Under 15 Girls race and let the early leaders take the race out hard. Emma's even pace soon paid dividends as she reeled in the front runners during the second lap and systematically worked her way through the Under 15 girls and the two Under 17 Women who had been ahead of her. Emma finished comfortably in 1st place (11.01min) and along with Rachel Dunn (6th) and Ailsa Bruce (8th), Edinburgh 'A' team took first team overall.

On the strength of these runs, Emma and Oonagh secured themselves places in the Edinburgh AC team for the National Cross Country Championships. Emma was selected for the first team along with Emily Strathdee and Emily Dudgeon whilst Oonagh was selected for the 5th team with Georgina Louden and Blair Wood.

Emily Strathdee ran well taking the Edinburgh 'A' team home in 8th place some 30 seconds adrift of the first placed team, Ayr Seaforth 'A'. As Emma headed out on her leg of the race in what were wet and very windy conditions, she worked her way through the field, pacing her assault on the front runners to perfection over the 2.5k course. After a particularly hilly section, Emma had clawed her way through 4 runners and had the top three placed girls within her sights.

After an 800m long downhill section of the course, Emma appeared into view in the mix with the front runners and then powered on past them taking her team into first place with an 8 second lead as she handed over to Emily Dudgeon. Emily who has represented Scotland on many occasions for cross country made light work of the final leg of the relay to take Edinburgh 'A' team home to victory in the Nationals ahead of the other 77 competing teams.

Oonagh who was running the third leg for her team, had a slightly longer wait to get going to the point that she had time to hand Emma her dry kit after her run, before Oonagh's second leg runner came in in 50th place. Undeterred Oonagh set out conservatively and soon got into her stride, picking off the Under 17 runners who were also running the last legs for their respective clubs.

She worked well on the numerous uphill sections and passed a couple of runners each time as tired legs began to show in the soft conditions underfoot. Oonagh took her Edinburgh team home in 32nd place and in doing so took 10.42min to complete the course which was the 5th fastest Under 15 time recorded on the day. Emma recorded a time of 10.00min which was the fastest lap by any junior athlete and sets her up nicely for future races as the season gets underway.

The girls are next competing at the local ND Cross Country League and CAAC Championships in Thurso on the 31st October at Naver, with the first race going off at 1.15pm. After that they have a couple of weeks off before heading to Liverpool for the McCain Cross Challenge and then to Livingston for the East District Championships. Both of these events act as selection races for the Celtic Cup International which is being held in Belfast in January and there are four Scottish vests up for grabs in each age group team.

End-of-Document