National XC Championships, Falkirk - 21/02/2009

The National Cross Country Championships at Falkirk's Callendar Park took place last weekend with a record entry of nearly 2,000 runners. Championship places were contested in ten age groups from the Under 13's to the Seniors.

The conditions on the day were in favour of the athletes with mild, dry weather although there was a firm breeze which made running around the circular mixed terrain course, tough in some sections.

The Caithness AAC athletes were competing in the Under 15 Girls and Under 20 Men's races. Emma and Oonagh Dunnett in the girl's race were looking to produce solid runs following a successful winter. As first year athletes in their age group which they will remain in for a further year, the Championships gave them the opportunity to learn from the experience of competition against more mature and experienced athletes.

Following Emma's silver medal placing at the Interdistrict Championships in Edinburgh in January, she was quietly confident about her ability to finish in the top ten out of the 107 athletes who were competing. The four kilometre course covered an undulating route including three sizeable climbs and was run predominantly over grass parkland.

The Under 15 Girl's race was taken out hard by the eventual silver medallist along with a group of three other athletes. Emma settled into the race in 9th place in a chasing group of runners. She worked her way steadily through this pack making best use of the tougher hilly sections to pass runners and by half way through the race she was clear in fourth place.

As she closed up on the leading pack, which had reduced to three runners, Emma used the final uphill section of the course to pull herself into a medal position. She maintained that place over the last half mile of the course and gained ground on the second runner to close the gap to just three seconds.

With a convincing bronze medal finish, Emma is the only Under 15 Girl to have medalled this year at both the Interdistrict and the National Championships and as a result of her consistent record she has gained selection to compete in the UK Intercounties Cross Country Championships in Nottingham on the 7th of March.

Unfortunately sister, Oonagh Dunnett, did not have such a happy ending to her National performance. After a strong start which saw her running comfortably in 15th place, she struggled with one of the nightmares for runners, the stitch, which saw her fall back to 73rd place. To her credit she continued the race and showed great mental strength and maturity in doing this.

In the Under 20 Men's race, Caithness athlete Graeme Taylor competed for the first time nationally in this age group and found the eight kilometre course a challenge. Graeme finished 34th out of 49 runners and gained a great deal from the experience of competing at that standard.

The other Caithness athlete competing for Edinburgh University on the day was Matthew Sutherland, also in the Under 20 Men's race. Matthew has a new found racing form and looked extremely strong as he finished 16th. He judged the pace of the race with uncommon accuracy and was the fourth team finisher in the team that took gold at the top of the podium. This gave Matthew a very well deserved first gold National medal and one he should be very proud of.

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