North District Cross Country Championships, Forres (re-arranged from Keith) - 14/02/2009

With all of the snow fall in the previous week, there were some last minute changes to the venue and courses for the final North District Cross Country League. Forres played host instead of Keith which saw a welcome reduction in travelling time for the Caithness athletes.

The courses at Grant Park were snow covered and many of the routes through the trees on this hilly course had to be altered to allow the races to go ahead safely. There were still a number of tricky sections for the athletes to navigate and it was a real test of the athletes' ability to select the right lines through the various underfoot conditions.

In the Under 11 Girls, Stephanie Andrew provided one last push to finish 2nd over a short but testing course which clinched her second overall in the league. Along with Sarah MacDonald in 6th place and Megan Mackay in 8th place, the girls team finished 2nd overall in the League behind Inverness Harriers.

The Under 11 Boys race was more of a display with Lewis Holmes taking his 5th victory having previously secured the League title in Nairn a fortnight ago. Ruairdh Gollan found his form again to take second place in both the Forres race and League standings and along with Murray Mackay who finished 5th, the boys took the team title in the League ahead of Inverness Harriers.

The Under 13 girls saw a much enjoyed return to fitness by Erin Mackay when she ran home to a second place finish at Forres, unfortunately missing out on an overall placing due to the prolonger period of injury during the season. Along with Sarah Henderson in 10th place and Lauren Lafferty in 13th place, the girls finished a very commendable second place in the League team placings behind Inverness.

The Under 13 Boys saw Caithness however taking the upper hand again by taking team gold ahead of Inverness with Ross Gollan, Ali Cooper and Rorie Stewart. Ross also took 1st overall and Ali after an outstanding run into first place at Forres, secured 2nd overall in the League.

Emma Dunnett clocked up her 4th victory at Forres to win the League for the fourth year running in her respective age groups and Oonagh not to be outdone took second at Forres to steal third place by 1 point in the League results. The sisters along with Sarah MacKinnon took gold overall in the League ahead of Inverness with strong performances by Sarah in what is her first season of cross country.

Jake Anderson and Rob Murdoch finished the season strongly with third and fourth places respectively at Forres with Jake just eing edged out of a medal place overall in the League. The boys along with David Gardner took third place in the teams with Moray Road Runners taking the glory over Inverness Harriers in second place.

With the Leagues having drawn to a close, the main squad can now focus on preparation for the track season. However the more experienced athletes have a number of national competitions to contend with before a well earned rest. The first of these is the Scottish National Championships at Falkirk this weekend where Emma and Oonagh Dunnett and Graeme Taylor will come up against the best in Scotland.

Full CAAC results for Forres:

Photos:-

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