Harriers Juniors success at the Hartley Cup Relays

There was a successful trip for a big group of Juniors and Seniors at the annual Hartley Cup Relays in Forfar. The Hartley Relays is an interesting event – it’s organised on a rotating basis by running clubs in and around Dundee, Angus, Forfar, Fife and Perth. This year’s event was organised by Forfar Road Runners and held at Forfar Loch Country Park. It’s deliberately aimed at running clubs, as opposed to athletics clubs, so the fast boys and girls of the likes of Central AC and Fife AC don’t turn up and blitz the living daylights out of everyone else.

Each leg of the relay is about a mile in distance, depending on the venue. This year, the legs were laps in Forfar Loch Country Park of 1.3 miles long, and each member of the team runs two non-consecutive laps, while for the Under 13 team, each runner runs one lap.

This was the first year we’ve been able to get teams together to enter, and we did it with a vengeance! We had three Juniors teams – Under 13 Boys, Under 13 Mixed, and Under 17 Boys, and two Senior Mixed teams, albeit with the A team augmented by two talented Juniors, Catriona and Abi, and with Duthac’s mum Gill standing in at the last minute to make up the second Seniors team.

The Junior Under 17 Boys team won their category, while the Under 13 Boys team were second in theirs. The Under 17 Boys team also had an exciting race with the Senior A team, with Angus for the Juniors just overhauling Jim in the final metres.

The winning Under 17 Boys team comprised Sol, Andrew, Daniel S, and the Lindsay brothers Fraser and Angus. The Under 13 Boys team comprised Levi, Duthac, Finlay D, David A and Huw.

For the Seniors, the A team finished in 7th position, but were just a few minutes away from the third place team, and the B team were 14th. The Under 13 Mixed team was 7th in their category.  

Thanks also go to Digby for driving the Coco bus, and to Fiona D and Susan for timekeeping. The event also got a big thumbs-up for the catering, which is always an important consideration when it comes to selecting races to go to. Everyone seems to have had a good time, so it looks like this might become a regular feature on the calendar.

Lots more pics are available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/22960608@N06/sets/72157637785370506/