Kilmarnock Harriers Senior/U20 Event Roundup 9th September 2026

First of all, an apology for the lack of formal reporting for the last month or so – things have been hectic but hopefully most of the results have been covered on our social platforms, thanks to all who have contributed and hopefully we will now be back to business as usual!

The World Masters Outdoors Championships have been taking place in Daegu, South Korea from the 22nd of August through to the 3rd of September, and M60 athlete Robert McHarg was our representative in a small team of Scottish athletes.  In the 800m, he sailed through to the finals and took a decisive win in the final in 2:09.06 for his first World gold of the championship.  Not content with this though, he then progressed safely through the 1500m heats for a spot in the final where he once again took the gold in 4:38.78.  Rounding up the championship in style, he was also part of the silver medal winning 4×400 Great Britain and Northern Ireland team – what a fantastic set of results, well done Rob!

Closer to home though there have been major championships for our U20 and Senior athletes, with the first of these taking place on the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd of August at the 4J Scottish Athletics U20, U14 and U16 champs at Grangemouth.  Huge congratulations to our younger athletes competing and contributing to Kilmarnock placing 2nd in the medal table, although we only cover U20 and upwards events it’s exciting to see the future of the club in safe hands!

In the 800m, both Eve Starritt and Madeline Curley (Madeline stepping up into the U20 category for these champs) progressed safely through heat 1 finishing 3rd and 4th respectively with Eve clocking 2:21.69 and Madeline close behind in 2:22.40.  In the final later on in the day Eve finished 7th with a season’s best of 2:20.15 and Madeline was 8th in 2:27.32 – great effort running up an age group!  For the men, Jamie Work qualified through heat 3 in 3rd with 2:00.85 and Gregor Samson just missing out in 4th (2:01.00).  Jamie finished 5th in the final with a cracking new PB of 1:56.72 – well done Jamie!

In the 400m hurdles, Cara Monachello was also stepping up to the U20 category but this did not stop her from producing an excellent performance of 61.96s to take the gold – congratulations Cara.  

On day 2, Rhian Mitchell was yet another athlete stepping up an age group to compete in the hammer, where a 51.35m effort was good enough to secure the silver medal.  He later backed this up with a bronze medal in the shot (14.86m) and silver in the discus (46.27m) – a fantastic set of performances on the day.

Meanwhile on the track, Cara Monachello was back in action this time in the 400m where she cruised through the heats and produced a PB effort of 55.99s to take her second gold of the championships.  Also in the 400m was Gregor Samson who also achieved a PB (52.91s) and although he did not reach the final a PB is always a result!  U18 athlete Olivia McMillan was another athlete running above her age group in the 100m – always a super competitive event.  Olivia gained safe passage to the finals with a PB run of 12.38s, and later lowered this PB to 12.35s in the final to take the bronze medal – great running!  Finally, we had Jamie Work representing in the 1500m where he finished 9th in 4:06.35 in a very competitive race.  

Wednesday the 26th was the return of the Marymass Mile, held on the grass track at Irvine Sports club.  There were a total of 7 races throughout the evening and we had representation from U12 right up to V65 on the night.  Fastest Harrier on the night was Rory Morris who ran a 5:09 to finish 3rd in H6 and take the 3rd prize overall for the men on the evening.  Next for the men was Corrie Speirs making his mile debut in race 6, where a 5:43 was good enough for 6th senior man overall.  Rounding up the results for the men was Mike Corson, who was 1st V65 in 6:35.  For the ladies, Jennifer Beattie was 1st V40 and 2nd lady overall in 5:55, closely followed by Lindsay Johnson who was 2nd V40 and 3rd lady overall in a PB of 6:09, and Natalie Sharp taking good points for her league campaign finishing 1st senior woman in a PB of 7:04.

On Friday the 28th we had a handful of athletes at the August edition of 3k on The Green.  Ross Granger was first Harrier home in 6th overall (10:16), followed by Mark Alexander on pacing duties in 11th overall (10:41) and Lynsey O’Connor 20th overall and first lady in 11:07 – well done all!

Also on Friday night, Jamie Nix took on 3 laps of Knockhill race track for the Knockhill Run Prix where he finished 30th overall in 30:42.

The weekend of the 29th and 30th was the 4J Scottish Athletics Senior and U18 Championships held at Aberdeen Sports Village, and once again there were some fabulous Harriers performances.  In the senior 800m, Jordan Phillips was 2nd in heat 2 in 1:59.27 to qualify for the final later in the day.  In the final he finished an agonising 4th in 1:55.69 – with less than a second covering the top 4 places it was certainly a very competitive race!  Also on the track we had Eilidh Ballantyne (representing Stirling Uni on this occasion) competing in only her second ever 3000m steeplechase event where she claimed the bronze medal in 12:45.57.  In the long jump pit, Isla Raeburn (representing Glasgow Uni) was 9th with a 5.10m effort, following this up with a bronze medal in the shot with a 10.72m performance.  In the men’s shot, Logan Mitchell recorded a best effort of 14.64m to take silver, and then followed this up with a fantastic hammer PB of 53.94m to take the championship title – fantastic effort!  Rounding up the great performance for Kilmarnock, Sara Barbour claimed the silver medal in the pole vault with a 3.60m clearance.  

On Saturday the 5th, Jordan Phillips was our sole senior athlete at the Monument Mile in Stirling where he finished 9th in race 30 (the last race before the elite races) in 4:15.25 – great running Jordan!  Also in Stirling on the Sunday, a small group of Kilmarnock athletes bet against the wind at NAAC to take on the Podfather Stirling 10k.  Incredibly, our top two athletes Owen Walpole and Scott Masterton ran the exact same chip time of 35:09, but Owen was quicker through the start for the faster gun time and bragging rights on the results!  Ian Wilson also had a solid run in 36:34 – all 3 of these men featuring in the top 100 overall.  Next back in a new PB of 41:06 was Jennifer Beattie and rounding up the results was Mark Lyden who has been quietly coming back from injury and got round safely in 1:06:41- great to see you back out in the blue and white Mark!

For the majority of our endurance athletes however, all roads led to Saltcoats for the next of our league events, the NAAC 10k.  First Harrier home and taking the win was Craig Ferguson (34:04), followed by David McLure in 4th overall and 1st V40 (36:52) and Mark Alexander in 6th overall and 2nd V40 (37:01).  For the ladies, Kirsty Girvan once again took top points and 3rd senior lady overall in 40:55, followed by Ellie Anderson (43:13 and 6th senior lady) and Lynsey Jamieson (46:01 and 2nd V40).  All results can be found HERE as there were too many athletes to name individually, but special mentions must go to Jim Phillips who was 1st V50 (38:03) and Alison Mair who was 3rd FV60 (52:18). 

Also this weekend we had athletes at the Lesley Little and Matthew Jones hammer throws memorial meeting in Carlisle – I have not seen formal results yet but by all accounts it looks like it was another successful day for our hammer throwers!  And we cannot forget Club Champs – final results will be posted once they have been calculated but it was great to see some U20 and senior athletes joining in the fun on the day.

From a league perspective, Graeme Quinn still tops the men’s league with 82, followed by Jonathon Downey with 75 and Craig Ferguson with 70.  For the ladies, Kirsty Girvan appears untouchable now with 116, but there is still plenty to be played for with Natalie Sharp sitting second with 61 and Sasha I’Anson in third with 53 and Jennifer Beattie and Lynsey Jamieson both hot on her heels with 51 apiece.  See the full table here. 

The next race is the Valley Dash (which may already have happened by the time you read this!) followed by Cumbrae 10 mile on the 20th.  Remember you also have the opportunity to submit your best Parkrun, HM and marathon times just shortly, and if you are yet to do a Parkrun the XC trial at the Dean Castle on Saturday the 26th of September could be the perfect opportunity!  If you want to run XC this season you need to ensure that your SA membership is up to date as of the date of the race (excluding Ayrshire level events) and you MUST wear a club vest at events.  If you are new and unsure about what is involved, reach out to myself or your coach!