Ayr Seaforth’s Kirstin Oakley wins gold at national cross country championships

Feb 25 2011 by Mike WIlson, Ayrshire Post (main ed)

AYR Seaforth had their strongest contingent to date at the National Cross Country Championships at Callendar Park in Falkirk last weekend.

Once again, Kirstin Oakley was the outstanding athlete of the day, racing home to take the under 13 girls’ title with a 28 second winning margin.

The Prestwick Academy pupil showed great maturity from the start and dominated the 3.2k race after 1000m to become only the fifth athlete in Seaforth's history to claim a Scottish cross country title.

She now heads to Birmingham next month to compete in the UK Inter-Counties Championships and the McCains UK Cross Challenge final.

The under 13 girls’ team proved the most successful Seaforth team of the day as they took fourth place, narrowly missing out on a bronze team medal.

Lisa Rennie continues to improve in every race and finished an excellent 14th while Christie Hutton was 42nd. There were national debuts for Siobhan Rae and Amy Palmer who finished 70th and 79th respectively.

Louisa Kelly was the first under 15 girl home in 46th despite losing a shoe after about 800m and having to run from the back of the field. Her team mates of Emma Vallely, Leigh McLevy and Laura Meader helped Seaforth to a highly respectable sixth.

The under 17 women's race saw the second shoe incident of the day for Seaforth. Although not quite in the league of the infamous Brian Whittle shoe loss at the European Championships, it was the turn of Lauren Goldie who completely lost her shoe with three kilometres still to go. However, she battled on to finish with one shoe.

In the same race, previous under 13 champion, Sarah Cassells took a spectacular fall at the half way point but still managed to finish an excellent 22nd.

A strong run from Katie Sprang saw her finish 29th and Seaforth take seventh in the team race. Under 20 athlete Louise Hill-Stirling had an incident free race and put in yet another sterling performance to take 11th place in her first year in this age group.

Highest placed male athlete was Finlay Rae. Still suffering from the effects of flu, the previous under 13 champion was 16th in the under 17 men's race.

He remains Seaforth's top national cross country performer of all time, having three medals (one gold and two bronze) from five appearances.

In the same race, Euan Webster returned to some form with an excellent 32nd place. The under 15 quartet of Ben Steven, Andrew Black, James Pettigrew and Shaun Rennie took ninth place with Ben being the highest finisher in 35th, closely followed by Andrew in 40th.

In the under 20 men's race, Greg Templeton had a strong performance to be top Seaforth finisher in 31st. Andrew Rae was next home in 41st, completing his seventh successive national cross country race.

Callum Aitkenhead came out of premature racing retirement to finish just behind in 44th. Laurence Baker was the sole senior athlete and finished 218th over the tough 12 k course.

Seaforth results: under 13 girls: 1. Kirstin Oakley 13:43; 14. Lisa Rennie 15:05; 42. Christie Hutton 16:19; 70. Siobhan Rae 17:26; 79. Amy Palmer 18:01; 4th team.

Under 15 girls: 46. Louisa Kelly 18:11; 53. Emma Vallely 18:38; 66. Leigh McLevy 20:03; 71. Laura Meader 20:35; 6th team.

Under 17 women: 22. Sarah Cassells 20:35; 29. Katie Sprang 21:00; 49. Lauren Goldie 24:54; 7th team; Under 20 women: 11. Louise Hill-Stirling 18:46.

Under 15 boys: 35. Ben Stevens 15:28; 40. Andrew Black 15:38; 51. James Pettigrew 16:03; 62. Shaun Rennie 16:45; 9th team; Under 17 men: 16. Finlay Rae 25:55; 32. Euan Webster 27:27.

Under 20 men: 31. Greg Templeton 30:35; 41. Andrew Rae 31:52; 44. Callum Aitkenhead 32:05; senior men: 218. Laurence Baker 50:36.