A day to remember as Fife AC hit the podium

There was a fantastic silver medal in the senior men’s race for St Andrews University student Kevin Wood, who claimed the club’s first senior men’s individual medal since Andrew Lemoncello claimed bronze in 2004.

It really was an excellent showing from the town based student who times his race to perfecetion, making his move at just the right moment.

Kevin stuck with the pack chasing winner Adam Craig of Inverclyde AC until a lap to go, when he pushed on and pulled away from the chasing hard eventual bronze medallist Michael Christoforou of Edinburgh AC and fourth placer Callum McKenzie of Corstorphine AAC.

His performance was particularly impressive given that it was his debut at Callander Park and the senior men’s field was the biggest since 1990, with a grand total of 719 finishers.

In the same race there were also great runs from Lewis Rodgers, who beat some well-known and established names to place 16th, and Derek Rae in 36th.

Fife AC’s hugely successful senior women’s team, who recently represented GB at the European Clubs Cross Country Championships in Portugal, won the hotly contested women’s team race from Hunters Bog Trotters and Shettleston Harriers after narrowly missing out on a number of occasions in recent years.

Former Scottish Marathon Champion Megan Crawford led the team home in 19th place, with Helen Sharpe in 26th, Sophie Mullins in 30th, Jen Cruickshanks in 32nd and Jen Spence in 41st.

Anna Hedley produced one of the club’s stand out performances of the day.

She went into the U15 girls race as the favourite and dominated the race, leading gun to tape and winning by 30 seconds from Julia Cash of Giffnock North AC. With younger sister Isla Hedley in 11th, Anna Dalglish in 15th and Hayley Brown in 22nd, the girls claimed team silver behind Giffnock North AC.

Isla Thoms, who has enjoyed a brilliant cross country season, claimed the silver medal in the U13 girls race behind Anna Cairns of Inverness Harriers.

With Ruby Russell in seventh, Katie Sandilands in 28 and Freya Hedley in 61st, the girls claimed team silver behind Inverness Harriers.

There were also impressive performances from the club’s Struan Bennett, who placed 11th in the U15 boys race; Ben Sandilands and Iain McWhinnie, who placed 15th and 16th respectively in the U17 men’s race and Robert Sparks, who placed 11th in the U20 men’s race despite being in his first year in the age group.