Senior/U20 Event Report 19th May 2026

We are now past the middle of May and Roon The Toon is coming around quickly for our road runners – let’s all start manifesting perfect conditions for the day!  But it’s not all about the road running, our athletes have been up to all sorts in the last couple of weeks with wins, PBs and International representations galore!

We start this report with a trip through to Edinburgh for the Sri Chinmoy 5k which is also the Scottish 5k Championships.  A total of 9 Kilmarnock athletes took part in this super competitive and very fast race, and the results were exceptional.  First back in 11th overall in a new PB of 14:36 was Jonathon Downey, followed by Matthew Monachello (15:49).  Owen Walpole was next back in 16:04, followed by Mark Alexander in a new PB of 17:25, and Ross McNaught in 18:26.  Our first lady home was Lorna Baird (18:28), closely followed by Lynsey O’Connor in 18:50.  Rounding up the results for the team were Gary Martin (18:51) and David Anderson (18:55).  To have all our runners under 19 minutes is a great effort – well done all!

Saturday the 2nd saw Stephen Emerson take part in the Neilston Pad Trail race where he finished 8th V40 and 42nd overall in 50:27.  

On Sunday the 3rd, one of our talented young athletes Jonathon Downey was representing team Scotland West at the British Senior Inter Counties Mountain race in Sedbergh, where he finished a very respectable 13th U23 and 44th overall – excellent performance Jonathon!

Meanwhile, some of our talented veteran athletes were in Cambuslang racing the Dick Wedlock 5 mile race.  First Harrier home in 27th overall and 3rd V50 was Connell Drummond (33:53), followed by Amanda Bryden in 35th overall and 1st V40 (35:29), Gillian Wishart in 69th (41:00), Lauren Carter in 71st (41:19) and Jackie Duncan in 82nd (43:27) – well done everyone.

On Friday the 8th, Izzy Caufield took part in the Victoria Park 10k where she was 2nd lady overall in 44:17 – well done Izzy!

Saturday the 9th saw Roddy Pugh take on the Ben Lomond Hill race where he completed the challenging route in 1:55:27 to take the win in the V70 category – great running! While Roddy was running up big hills, we had other athletes taking on big distances – Gordon and Jacqui Sandler were both competing in the Kintyre Way 35 Ultra marathon from Tayinloan to Tarbert.  Gordon was 5th V50 in 7:02:50 and Jacqui was 8th V50 in 7:56:39 – fantastic effort from you both. 

The outdoor season is also getting underway for our T&F athletes, and we had two senior athletes representing the club at the Scottish Athletics National Open at Linwood.  Logan Mitchell was 1st senior man in the hammer competition with a 44.44m effort, and he backed this up with a 14.74m effort in the shot to take top senior male honours here too.  Eilidh Ballantyne won the ladies 5000m in 20:13.98 (representing her uni on this occasion).  A little further from home and much further into their season, another one of our student athletes was doing very big things at the Billy Hayes Invitational meet in the States.  It’s safe to say that Jamie Phillips has had an incredible season, but his 1:45.61 performance in the 800m for a new PB puts him 8th in the all time Scottish list with another Commonwealth qualifying time under his belt.

On Sunday the 10th, we had three athletes competing at the Shettleston 10k (incorporating the Scottish 10k champs).  Jonathon Downey backed up his top 15 place at the 5k champs with 13th overall in a new PB of 31:07.  Ross Granger was 104th overall (10th V40) with 36:59, and Sasha I’Anson was 194th overall in 41:19.  Meanwhile a bit further down the road, Lynsey O’Connor was participating in the Thornhill 10k where she finished 3rd lady overall and 1st V40 in 40:19 – great running!

Wednesday the 13th saw the second of our summer league races – the ever popular Troon 10k.  We had a total of 35 finishers so unfortunately cannot mention everyone, full results can be found here: Troon 10K 2026.  For the men, Jonathon Downey took the overall win in a fantastic PB of 30:44 to break 31 for the first time.  Matthew Monachello was next back in 4th overall (2nd senior) in a new PB of 33:47 to break 34 for the first time.  Rounding up our top 3 men was Owen Walpole who was 9th overall in 34:35.  For the ladies, Kirsty Girvan broke 40 for the first time (are we beginning to see a theme here?) to finish 3rd overall and 2nd senior lady (39:56).  Next back for the ladies in a PB of 41:44 for 3rd V40 and 12th lady overall was Jennifer Beattie, and Lynsey Jamieson rounded up the top 3 Killie women with 44:29.  A special mention also must go to Jim Phillips who was 2nd V50 in 37:10.  Great running from everyone, great to see so many blue and white vests on the night!

The weekend just gone appears to have been a bit quieter for our senior athletes (please let us know if we missed anything!) but what we lacked in quantity we most certainly made up for in quality, with Jordan Phillips earning a Scotland vest to represent at the Loughborough International where he finished 6th with a SB of 1:53.62 in a very tactically run 800m with strong competition – great running Jordan.

At this early stage in the league there is all to play for, but the current standings are as follows:

Men’s league 1st Jonathon Downey (30), 2nd Owen Walpole (27), 3rd Graeme Quinn (25)

Ladies league 1st Kirsty Girvan (29), 2nd Lynne McCaffrey (20), 3rd Sasha I’Anson (15)

You can see the full tables here – Summer 26

The next two races are Land O’Burns this week and then the big one, Roon the Toon!  Remember that we also take into account your best half marathon, marathon and parkrun within the set timescale and you must complete a minimum of 5 events to be eligible for a prize at the awards night next March.