ATHLETICS: Irvine relay runners edged out

Oct 21 2011 by John Woods, Irvine Herald

IRVINE Athletic Club’s hopes of winning the senior men's title for an incredible 11th time in 12 years at the Ayrshire Cross Country Relay Championships at the Beach Park on Saturday were dashed by local rivals Kilmarnock after an engrossing race.

Only a solitary loss to Girvan five years ago blemished a record which is unlikely to ever be repeated but the Marress outfit knew they were facing one of their strongest challenges this year from a resurgent young Kilmarnock Harriers team.

And they would also have to face it without the in-form Billy Richardson who was forced to call off after trying to shake off a heavy cold all week.

His place in the Irvine A team went to Colin Miller, but it was generally felt that a team with the talents of Miller, David Millar, Alex Allardyce and Jamie Findlay would be strong enough to retain the title.

The experienced Miller chose to run the first leg which is always a real dogfight as the teams jockey for position. First home in the third fastest time of the day was Greg Turner of Ayrodynamics in 13 minutes one second but, ominously for Irvine, he was closely followed by Ian Connell of Kilmarnock in 13.02 with Miller a valiant fifth in a good 13.58.

Renowned front runner David Millar set off in pursuit of the leaders and by halfway he had overtaken all but Kilmarnock and, despite posting the fastest time of the day with 12.37, Killie youngster James Wales of Kilmarnock clung on to hand over five seconds ahead of Irvine.

Allardyce's faced Cameron Wilson, another of Kilmarnock's rising stars, in the third leg and was unlucky to find his opponent in top form, recording 13.03 to the Irvine man’s 13.41 to stretch the gap to 43 seconds at the final changeover.

With the rest of the field almost four minutes adrift Jamie Findlay was left to try and chase down Kilmarnock's Scott Martin but, despite putting in a great leg of 13.39 to close the gap to just 12 seconds at the finish, the title went to a deserving Kilmarnock quartet.

The Irvine B team of Joe McNamee (15.39), George Irving (14.55), Mark Livingstone (15.02) and Andy Rennie (16.16) finished seventh with the C team of Gordon Thomson (15.46), Jim Sneddon (15.57), Jim White (16.25) and Stevie Connell (16.41) one place further back in eighth.