Athletics: Sarah Inglis wins Broxburn cross country challenge

Jan 21 2010 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

ALMOST 500 athletes of all ages were in Broxburn on Saturday for the third and final match in the 2009-10 East District Cross-Country league where Lothian Running Club were well represented with 21 athletes.

And the club enjoyed some excellent success with Sarah Inglis, making a welcome return to action, leading home 73 runners in the combined Senior-Junior Women’s race.

Sarah covered the icy and muddy 3.5 miles course at Broxburn Academy in 24 minutes 11 seconds which was 13 seconds clear of her nearest pursuer Helen Sharpe, Fife AC.

With club mates Lynne Murray 40th, Jill Horsburgh 41st and Saran Jones 44th, it resulted in the Lothian ladies team finishing in eighth place on the day and seventh overall.

Over 190 runners completed the Senior Men’s race over 5.5 miles with Ben Hartman the first club runner home in 33rd place, the mens team finished 13th and sixth over the three matches.

Being only able to field one runner in the Girl’s under-11 race almost certainly cost the club second place in the final classification for that category.

Amy Lickley was the only runner, finishing in 12th place, the club however incurred 200 penalty points which meant they finished in tenth place on the day but fourth overall.

When all the combined female scores were tabulated Lothian finished a respectable fifth out of 25 clubs with the males in eleventh place out of 31.

Lothian Club finishers.

Senior Men: (5.5miles) — 33 Ben Hartman 35.37, 86 Scott Nelson 39.15, 89 Colin Eades 39.31, 113 Harry Mulholland 41.04, 116 Matt Richardson, 128 JohnMalcolm 42.50, 167 Robin Morris, 171 Ian Leggatt 48.20.

Senior Women: (3.5 miles) — 1 Sarah Inglis 24.11, 40 Lynne Murray 30.39, 41 Jill Horsburgh 30.44, 44 Saran Jones 30.59. 73 finished, final league position seventh. Under-17 Men: 7 Max McNeil 24.02. Under-17 Women: 22 Lana Turnbull 19.40. Under-13 Boys: 40 Sam Jones 14.01. Under-13 Girls: 18 Lauren Arbuckle 12.37, 32 Bethany Nelson 14.01, 34 Alice Horsburgh 14.30, 35 Megan Balharrie 16.53. Under-11 Boys: 24 Iain Horsburgh 6.13, 30 Andrew Lickley 6.30; Under-11 Girls: 12 Amy Lickley 7.40.

Meanwhile, Ross Milne took the plaudits at this week’s Edinburgh 5k park run at a windy Edinburgh waterfront. His time of 16 minutes 16 seconds may have been 24 seconds slower than that of his only other park run appearance but it was good enough to lead home a big field.