NDCC & Scottish Uni Champs, Inverness - 21/11/2009

The North District Championships, hosted this year by Inverness Harriers, saw a unique event as some of the 140 University students battled out for the Scottish University Championships' titles in conjunction with the North District event. Added to the 210 ND athletes, this exceptional turn out of cross country athletes was a tremendous boost for running in the north.

Caithness AAC had a small team away to the event but they managed to get in about some of the medal winning. Rhianna Urquhart was the only Under 11 athlete competing for Caithness in the non-championship race and she seemed to enjoy the atmosphere of this large event. Hannah MacLeod was the only Under 13 Girl and finished the hilly course in 25th place out of 36 runners.

In the Under 15 Girls, Sarah Henderson was the first CAAC runner home in 11th place out of 21 competitors. Sarah was closely followed in by Isobel MacLeod on 13th and Sharon Mackay in 17th place took the team home to bronze medal place which was an excellent result for all three girls.

The under 15 Boys were unfortunate to loose out on a team placing by 2 points by individually the put in strong performances with Rob Murdoch in 8th place, Andrew Nicholson in 19th, Rorie Stewart in 21st and Dean Britton in 25th place.

The Under 17 Women's race was one of the highlights of the day with a high standard of racing and the eventual race winner was Katie Bristow from Shetland who has a number of Scottish vests to her name. Following in her wake was Caithness's own Sarah MacKinnon in 5th and Hannah Paterson in 7th places.

This was also the case in the Under 17 Men's race where Bobby Bristow not to be outdone by his sister, took the field home with Caithness's Jake Anderson finished a very commendable 7th place. The only other Caithness runner was Matthew Sutherland who was jointly competing for his home club and Edinburgh University. His University won the Men's team title and Matthew was 3rd in the North District Senior Men's Championships.

The athletes are not attending the next North District fixture in Keith this weekend and so will next be out as a full team at Forres on the 16th January. However a number of athletes are hoping to gain selection to the North Team for the Interdistrict Championships in Edinburgh on the 9th January. Selections for this event will be announced the week of the 7th December.

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