Inverness Harrier is crowned king at Brodie Castle 10k
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Sean Chalmers produced a lightning-fast time of 30 minutes 53 seconds in miserable, cold and wet conditions to emerge as a clear winner of the Brodie Castle 10k.
The Fortrose Academy PE teacher, who runs for Inverness Harriers, led the race from the start and, despite being completely on his own throughout, ended up with a winning margin of two minutes and six seconds over Ewan Davidson of Moray Road Runners (32:59). Another Road Runner, James Wilson, took third place in 34:08.
Chalmers’ time was just 13 seconds slower than the personal best he ran for second place in a much more competitive race in better weather at last month’s River Ness 10k.
Fourth place went to Peter Fraser in 37:44 and with Tom McWilliam sixth in 38:36, Inverness Harriers took the men’s team title.
“The conditions weren’t pleasant at all so I’m really pleased to get a time like that,” said Chalmers.
“I wasn’t sure whether I might do the cross country league race at Evanton instead but I decided to go for the road again and I’m glad I did now because that was a good run.
“I’m not sure what I’m doing about the rest of the cross country league races, but I will definitely be doing the North District Cross Country Championships at Dores next month.”
Chalmers’ victory was part of a double success for the Harriers since the top woman was Amy Hudson, who ran 38:23 just three weeks after setting a Harriers female club marathon record in of 2 hours 58 minutes 47 seconds in Chicago.
Second in the women’s race in 39:27 was the previous holder of that marathon record, Lesley Hansen and with Kirsty Watson following up in 43:30, the Harriers claimed that team victory as well.
Even with these women focusing on this road event, the Harriers still managed to perform impressively in North cross country league match in even worse conditions in Evanton. Emily Andrew repeated her victory in the opening race in Keith, as did Catriona Fraser with her third place to set the city club up well in the team contest.
The men’s winner in Keith, John Newsom, took third place at Evanton.
