WEEKEND ROUND-UP: FEBRUARY 24&25

Cat Macdonald in action at the Scottish National Cross Country Championships

English and Scottish National Cross Country Championships
 
Incessant rain on Thursday, falling on already saturated ground caused the cancellation of the English National Cross Country Championships, due to be held in Shropshire on Saturday although the very late cancellation on Friday morning meant some athletes and families had already set off.

It is only the third time since the Second World War that this has happened, with the other occasions not due to the conditions but to either foot and mouth disease or covid.
 
The ECCA have now announced that the Championships will take place in September, which is likely to have an impact of course on the local XC season. Watch this space.
 
However, the Lindsays Scottish Nationals did take place at Falkirk over the same weekend, with Morpeth’s Catriona Macdonald once again in action.
 
Running for her Scottish club Bellahouston Road Runners, Cat finished 10th, recording a time of 38 minutes 58 seconds for the grassy 10k course, with the race won by Edinburgh AC’s Alice Goodall in 36:03.
 
Finishing 10th in each of the last three years, she’s certainly proved to be the model of consistency, although Saturday’s time was also the fastest she has so far recorded.
 
Osaka Marathon
 
Meanwhile on the other side of the world, Morpeth life member Serod Batochir ran a remarkable 2 hours 10 minutes 10 seconds when representing Mongolia in the Osaka Marathon, won in a time of 2 hours 6 minutes 18 seconds by the host country’s Kiyoto Hirabayashi in some difficult conditions.
 
Now 42 years of age, Batochir will be aiming to represent his country in the Paris Olympics this Summer – an incredible seventh Games for the well-travelled veteran. 

England Masters

Morpeth Harrier Trevor Hodgson maintained his current run of excellent form when representing North East Masters at the England Masters Inter Area Indoor Match, held at Lee Valley, Edmonton in London on Sunday.

Hodgson very comfortably won his heat of the Over 50’s 60m, posting a time of 7.48s, which was only a mere fraction adrift of his lifetime best of 7.39s, posted at the same venue seven days previous in the British Masters Championships.

His next racing appointment is in Torun in Poland in three weeks’ time at the European Masters, and his current form should see him a red-hot favourite for a top podium placing.