There were four PH athletes among the strong Scottish squad who made the trip to Santry, Dublin for Saturday’s British & Irish Masters Cross Country International. Roger Clark and Ed Norton have both previously represented Scotland in this event while there were debuts for Andy Davis and Anne Hartmann.

First event of the day was the men’s over 65 race which was run over 6k and featured Ed Norton. Incredibly the Scottish V70s filled the first four places in the category to end England run of 10 consecutive victories. Unfortunately Ed, who timed at 25 minutes exactly, was just outside the individual medals in fourth place but can nevertheless console himself with a team gold medal to better the bronze he won in Swansea four years ago.

The gold medal winning Scotland V70 team after winning the race, and scrubbed up for dinner (Ed

The women’s races were also run over 6k and Anne Hartmann’s time of 23:34 contributed to a bronze medal for the Scottish V40s. Husband Roger Clark also secured a bronze medal. His V50 category ran the longer 8k course along with the V55s and V60s where his time was 29:25.

The bronze medal winning Scotland V40 women (Anne 1st left) and V50 men with Roger in action on right

Andy Davis had an excellent run of 27:50 to finish 6th in the V45 category, also run over 8k, but the Scots just missed out on the podium for this age group. Overall, Scotland finished third in both the men’s and women’s competitions.

While our cross country internationals were in Dublin, fellow Scotland internationalist John Hammond was running the Dava Way 50k. This ultra race takes in a route from Grantown-on-Spey to Forres with John finishing fourth overall in 3:32:04. Hi dad Malcolm was also running and timed at 5:23:05, 1st V70, therefore retaining the V70 title, and beating all the V60s too! Craig Paterson picked up and injury midway through the race and had to drastically adjust his target, but still managed to finish the race in 4:36:59. Susan Allan was happy with her run having finished in 6:11:01.

Andy Davis (front, 2nd left with his Scotland team mates)

Well done to all, and particularly to Ed, Anne, Roger and Andy for earning international vests. Next year’s event will be held in Scotland and we hope to see even more PH members trying to qualify for the national team.