IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Edinburgh - 29&30/03/08

The 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships were held last weekend in Edinburgh and whilst the eyes of the world were on the elite international runners such as Ethiopian legend Kenenisa Bekele, Caithness were making a little bit of their own history.

A squad of 4 athletes from Caithness AAC along with one Moray Road Runner travelled to Edinburgh to compete in some of the various events on Saturday which lead up to the elite races on the Sunday. Jade Currie and Oonagh Dunnett were joined by Bethany Wilson from Moray Road Runners to take part in the Welcome the World Young Athlete Relays on the Saturday morning.

The relays took place over 3 separate 2 kilometre loops of Holyrood with the first section on road, second section being a hilly multi-terrain leg and the final section was cross country. Of the 25 participating teams, Caithness certainly showed everyone else that the true spirit of the event was to welcome the 70 nations who were competing over the weekend.

Caithness who had adopted the Mexican team for the weekend through an initiative run by Scottish Athletics, saw their relay team members dressing for the occasion in support of their team. Jade Currie took the team out hard on the first section of the course and after a determined start which saw her in the lead, she struggled with the windy conditions as the athletes looped back towards the changeover area where she finished in 5th place in a time of 6.56min.

Oonagh Dunnett was running the second leg and soon overtook a fellow competitor and closed the gap on the three leading teams over the hilly section of the course. Oonagh had the 4th fastest time for the second section finishing in 6.02min. She handed over to Bethany Wilson who ran a strong leg into freshening conditions to finish just 5 seconds outside of a team bronze position. Bethany also had the 4th fastest time for her section and finished in 6.56min.

This was a fantastic effort by the Caithness team who thoroughly enjoyed the experience of competing whilst being watched by the some of the elite athletes as they inspected their courses for the World Championship races on the Sunday.

The final Caithness athlete in these Relays was Emma Dunnett. Emma had been selected to compete for Team Raven after her silver medal placing at the recent National Cross Country Championships in Falkirk. Team Raven was made up of the first three finishers at the Nationals and the challenge was for these young athletes to make up the 2 minute handicap they had been given. As the other 24 teams headed off, Kate Murdoch from Aberdeen AAC had to stand on the starting line for a further 2 minutes until she was set off by the BBC children's presenter Raven.

Kate managed to catch the tail end teams and had the second fastest time for her leg, handing over to Emma Dunnett with the team lying in 23rd place. Emma who was competing on the same section as her twin sister, made light of the hilly course and overtook a further 9 teams as she came home comfortably in 5.47min. This was the fastest time recorded over this section by a clear margin of 6 seconds and allowed the final runner for Team Raven to start her run with the team lying in 14th place.

Sarah Cassells from Ayr Seaforth AC who won the National Championships, overtook a further 4 teams to take Team Raven home in 10th place overall as she recorded the second fastest time for the final section. The experience for all three girls was not so much about placing well with an insurmountable handicap to claw back, but instead about the opportunity to compete together instead of against each other and went along way to cementing friendships which will flourish as they continue through their athletic careers.

The Saturday afternoon events gave the older regional athletes the opportunity to compete in a six way competition between the new Scottish Athletic regional areas; Highland, Grampian, Tayside and Fife, Central, East and West. Highland which takes in from Inverness north and includes the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland fielded a predominantly young team and allowed developing athletes the opportunity to experience not only this level of competition but also the protocol and security checks that go with competing as part of a World Championship event.

The Highland team was managed by Niall Bristow from Shetland and Sophie Dunnett from Caithness, who provided stability and reassurance for the athletes as they warmed up within an enclosed area with restricted access only to athletes and Team Managers.

Graeme Taylor from Caithness AAC was running in the Under 15/17 Men's race over a 4 kilometre course which formed part of the elite athletes' course for the following day. Graeme despite an illness the previous week, competed well on the hilly course and finished in 15th place (13.15min) out of 36 runners.

Graeme was the second Highland athlete home and along with Joshua Morrison and Bobby Bristow from Shetland AAC and Chris Fyfe from Inverness Harriers, the Highland team finished 4th overall with 56 points, just 5 points off a bronze podium placing. The Highland girls team finished 6th overall having had a number of team call offs which resulted in a very young team of predominantly Under 15 girls sporting the red Highland vests. This will be an experience that none of the Highland athletes will forget and I am sure that many junior athletes were truly inspired by the performances of the world best athletes who raced on the Sunday.

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