By Angela Mudge
Results from Sunday trial race
Scotland’s mountain runners had a very successful weekend at European Off-Road Running Championship trials in Cumbria.
There were eight races across the Senior and U20 age categories, where the first two eligible finishers in each race gained automatic selection for the EORRC.
Scotland’s U20 men cleaned up in Friday’s uphill only event, with our athletes finishing in the top four positions.
Rowan Taylor (Lasswade) won by five seconds from Kieran Hardie (Harmeny), with Lachlan Thomas (Ross County) and Joel Gillan (Central) in third and fourth for a brilliant collective effort.
The U20 women also secured two automatic places with Jess Taylor (Edinburgh) winning by over a minute from Nancy Corrie (Harmeny) in second. Hania Czebresuk (Aberdeen) also climbed strongly to finish in fourth place.
The Senior athletes ran to the summit of Skiddaw and Scotland-based athlete Matt Knowles (Carnethy) covered the 8.6km with 960m of ascent in 43.21. Scout Adkin was second woman home and also gains automatic selection. Nancy Scott (Edinburgh) was third and Kirsty Dickson (Carnethy) finished fourth to offer selection hope.
Our U20 athletes delivered brilliant performances in the uphill only trial
On Sunday the Up-and-Down trials were held above Sedbergh in very blustery conditions.
The athletes were running into the wind on the climb making conditions tough. The senior race also hosted the Inter Counties Mountain Runing Championships where teams of five runners competed for the East, West and North Districts. Runners raced 14.5km and 980m ascent/descent, over three laps.
In the women’s race, Naomi Lang (Carnethy) and Scout Adkin (Moorfoot) battled it out, with Scout taking the lead on the climbs on each lap and Naomi over-hauling her on each of the three descents. Naomi duly won by 30 seconds and Scout finished in third.
The Scotland West District team finished in second behind Cumbria. Naomi was backed up by Emily McNicol (Carnethy) in seventh and Ella Peters (Westerlands) 17th with Louisa Brown (Garscube) finishing third in the U23 competition. The East District women were fourth.
In the men’s event, Matt Knowles made it a double, by winning from Thomas Hilton (Moorfoot) who as a first-year senior gained automatic selection for the EORRC.
Scotland’s North District raced well to take second place, again behind Cumbria. Finlay Todd led the team home in seventh , with Joe Wright (both Carnethy) in 15th and Ross Gollan (East Sutherland) in 18th.
The West team finished in fifth and were led home by Andy Douglas (Westerlands) in eighth.
Matt Knowles and Thomas Hilton with their Senior Men’s race medals
In the junior trials, 5.8km with 380m ascent/descent, Scotland’s Jess Taylor was the clear winner and made it a double by winning the U20 trial and again guaranteeing selection.
Nancy Corrie had a battle on the descent with only a few seconds separating places from three to five andduly finished fourth.
In the U20 men’s race, Lachlan Thomas showed his descending skills by running the fastest descent and finished in second place with Ben Hodson (Stewartry Athletics) maintaining his position at the summit to finish in third place.
The Scottish U20 athletes had a very successful weekend of racing and many will have to wait for this week’s selection meeting to see if they are awarded the discretionary places.
Well done to all the Scots who raced over the weekend and to their families, coaches and clubs.
Scotland North team who took silver in the Men’s race
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Tags:
hill running, Naomi Lang, Slovenia