Emma's golden run

Published 10 Feb 2010 14:00 0 Comments

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Emma Rice.

Inverclyde AC's seniors and juniors had another medal-winning day in the Renfrewshire AAA Road Race Championships at the Battery Park, Greenock, on Sunday, Emma Rice taking pride of place with gold.

In the senior ladies' five-mile race, Inverclyde AC's Emma Rice comfortably took the individual gold medal, winning by well over a minute from Yvonne Hamilton of Giffnock North AC in second place, Shona Donnelly of Bellahouston Road Runners coming home third.

It has been a tremendous winter season so far for Emma, who, at the end of last year, also took the Renfrewshire Cross Country title at a very muddy Bellahouston Park. She was also the first under-20 lady finisher at the Battery Park.

Emma should now go to the National Cross Country Championships in a couple of weeks full of confidence of finishing higher than her 28th place last year.

Erica Cromar also ran well in the ladies' race, finishing 10th overall. In the men's five-mile race it was a much closer affair between Inverclyde AC's Mark Pollard and Kilbarchan AAC's promising youngster Callum Hawkins.

These two national champions broke away from the rest of the field after the one mile marker and thereafter had a good tussle throughout the rest of the race along the Esplanade.

Into the last mile it was the under-20 man Hawkins from Kilbarchan who proved the stronger on the day. He opened up a gap to take the win and the gold medal, finishing 18 seconds ahead of Mark Pollard who had to settle for the silver medal this time.

Pollard, the former double National Cross Country champion, is slowly getting back to his best, but maybe the National this year is coming up just too soon for him.

Third in the open race went to Matt Bell of Edinburgh AC. Fourth overall and third in the Renfrewshire, to take the bronze medal, was Andrew Campbell who seems to be hitting top form again at the right time. Andrew was also the first under-20 man to finish and this result must be a big boost to his confidence.

The next to finish for the club was Sean Gaffney in 10th place overall, just ahead of David McElhinney in 12th place with a good strong run

James McFadden also had an excellent personal best run over this course to finish 18th overall. The final team counter for Inverclyde's men, who took silver, was Campbell Cromar in an excellent 38th place.

Bellahouston Road Runners took the men's and women's team golds. Greenock Glenpark Harriers took the team bronze in the men's race.

Other good senior runs came from Damien Mallet, David McKenzie, John Smillie, George Hegarty and Tom Tracey. In the junior races prior to the senior event Ryan Gray got the club of to an excellent start by comfortably taking gold in the boys under-11 age group race.

This was another excellent run by Ryan who seems unbeatable at the moment. Team-mate Zach McKechnie also ran well to take silver. Mathew MacKinnon in fifth place also ensured the under-11 boys also took team gold.

Other finishers were Macauley McArthur, seventh, and 11th Bruce Cromar. The under-11 girls also finished as third team, with their counters being 11th Jill McGachy, 12th Mhairs Cromar and 16th Robyn Kelly. One other Inverclyde finisher was Kim Simpson in 19th place. In the under-13 boys' race, Jonathan Glen was the club's top performer, taking the silver medal in second place. Jonathan, 10th last year in the National, could go even closer this year. Team-mate Ross Gray also took the bronze medal in third. Josh Houston, in fifth place, also ensured the boys took team gold.

Kelly Williams finished just out of the medals in fourth place overall in the under-13 girls' race. Chloe Simpson also had a good run to finish seventh. Greg Williams took an excellent individual silver medal in the under-15 boys' race.

Team-mate Michael Houston also ran well to finish fifth. In the under-15 girls' race Rebecca Munn produced a very good run to take the individual gold medal, with team-mate Lisa MacDonald also running well to finish just outside the medals in fourth place.

Inverclyde's Nynke Mulholland and Glenpark's Emily Pollock also produced a good race on the day in the under-17 ladies' event, with Nynke just holding off the strong challenge of Emily Pollock to take the individual gold medal.

Thanks go to everyone from all the clubs present for helping with the stewarding and timekeeping, including Helen and Duncan MacNeill of Glenpark.

Thanks to Julie, Emma and everyone else who helped with the raffle, and to everyone who donated raffle prizes; also to the Double H Catering Company, alias Helen and Hazel, for the grub and refreshments. The club also wish to thank Josephine and Eileen from Kilbarchan, Peter for the results and Inverclyde treasurer Hugh Docherty for presenting the medals.

Finally the club appreciate manager Mark at the Battery Pavilion for all his assistance on the day.

This article appeared in Greenock Telegraph 10 Feb 10

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