Athletics: Sarah Inglis’ triple joy at competitive Irish race

Jan 28 2010 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

SARAH INGLIS was the name on everyone's lips at the Celtic Nations Cross Country International at Antrim in Ireland this week after a stunning race.

The Lothian Running Club athlete turned in a superb run to claim the individual race victory as well as spearheading the Scotland team to gold medals in the under-20/under-17 race.

This phenomenal success follows hot on the heels of her impressive East of Scotland league win the previous week.

The Greenmount Campus was shrouded in fog and conditions underfoot were very muddy in places.

But by the end of the opening lap of the 3.6km course Sarah had established a 20-metre advantage.

She upped the pace in the latter stages of the race and extended her lead to 80 metres with half a mile to run before going on to break the winning tape in 13 minutes and 41 seconds – some seven seconds clear of her Scottish colleague Beth Duff who finished runner up in 13 minutes 48 seconds.

And with the third counting runner Hollie Young coming home in seventh place Scotland had clinched the team gold medals and retained the title from 12 month’s ago in Wales.

“I’ve only had one race back before this,” a delighted Sarah said after the race.

“I thought I was in decent shape and that I should give it a go, but I’ve not been doing track sessions and I wasn’t really able to judge my times or overall fitness.

“I cant actually believe it and it just feels so good to be back racing.”

Meanwhile, club athletes were in action elsewhere at the weekend.

Lothian Running Club fielded a male, a female and a mixed team at the 31km Devil’s Burden’s Hill Relays in Fife on Saturday.

The meet, which starts and finishes in the picturesque village of Falkland, is probably the most popular hill running event staged in Scotland.

This year’s race attracted a record 700 runners which equated to 120 teams of six covering four stages, with the first and third stages run in pairs.

The three club teams performed creditably with the men’s team in 19th place and the mixed team 43rd. The Ladies were 69th overall, the seventh female team.

The men’s race was won by Shettleston and the women’s by Ochil Hill Runners.

Half a dozen club athletes were also among an excellent turnout of 200 at this weeks Edinburgh 5k Parkrun.

Robert Inglis, who was making his debut at the weekly event, was the highest-placed club finisher in third place overall and first Junior (15-19).

Robert completed the 5k course along the Cramond-Silverknowes waterfront in 16 minutes 03 seconds.

Two places further back in fifth place was Brian Turner (35-39) 16.21.

Making it four Lothian runners in the top 20 were Graeme Ackland and Scott Balfour who both set new PBs.

Graeme was a massive 102 seconds quicker than his previous best in finishing in 14th place in 18.15.

Scott broke through the 19 minutes mark to come home in 20th position in 18.54.

Lana Turnbull, who is becoming a Parkrun regular, was the club’s only female entrant and she finished third female and first junior (15-19). Lana’s time of 20.40 was only four seconds outside her PB for the course.