Congratulations to Howgill Harriers FKS for breaking the 11 year old course record at this year’s relay. Their time of 3.05.30 for the 43km course including 1700m of climb and some challenging terrain, eclipsed the 3.10.54 set by Forres Harriers in 2013. Two leg wins from Fergus Roberts on Leg 1 and Ben van Dijk on Leg 4, backed up with 2 second places from Alistair Thornton on Leg 2 and Sam Fisher on leg 3 saw them home first from a strong Central AC team in 2^nd and Deeside in 3^rd.

For the women, it was a comfortable victory for the Carnethy quartet of Polly Edwards Grace Pow, Laura Dozier and Clare McDonnell who recorded an excellent time of 4.09.45. Deeside were second home with Falkland Trailrunners in 3^rd.

In the vets categories, it was a win for Ochil men with Strathearn in 2^nd and Shettleston 3^rd and local club, Strathearn picked up the victory for the women with Westies in 2^nd and a second Strathearn team in 3^rd.

The mixed category prize (minimum of 2 women) was also claimed by Strathearn with Ochils 2^nd and HBT in 3^rd.

As mentioned, Fergus Roberts and Ben van Dijk were our male winners on legs 1 and 4. Leg 2 was claimed by Ralph McInally of Strathearn, just 21 seconds off the course record and the leg 3 winner was Joe Wright of Deeside who is just the 6^th runner in the 18 years that the race has been run, to join the exclusive sub-one-hour club for this leg. Polly Edwards of Carnethy won leg 1, Deeside’s Jill Stephen took the prize on leg 2, Laura Dozier of Carnethy was fastest on leg 3 with Gemma Griffiths of Shettleston winning leg 4.

While the relay was coming to a conclusion, there was an excellent turnout for the junior race with 43 runners taking to the start line. It was great to see a good contingent from Shettleston Harriers alongside the large numbers of Strathearn runners and also representation from Perth Strathtay and Central AC plus a large number of unattached runners.

Overall winners in the main junior race were Harris Turnbull of Strathearn who just pipped team-mate Angus Thomson to the line in a tight finish with Quinn McInally, also of Strathearn in 3^rd. For the girls it was Rowan Lennox of Shettleston, followed by Robin Perez-Reid from Strathearn and Kezia Swift of Perth Strathtay.

Full results for both the relay and the junior race (including the Under 9 fun run) can be found on the race website