Mike Skinner runs for EKAC in MacAndrew Road Relay

Great Britain & Northern Ireland athlete Mike Skinner traveled up to Glasgow to compete in the 74th MacAndrew Road Relays around Scotstoun. The international athlete, who has represented GB & NI in five World Cross Country Championships and eight European Cross Country Championships to date, donned the East Kilbride AC vest to compete in the annual event.

Conditions where near perfect, a surprisingly warm day with relatively little wind; uncommon for an October afternoon in Scotland! East Kilbride AC had two teams out on force on the day, and all were in high spirits to be running alongside a GB international.

The MacAndrew Road Relay requires a team of 4 men to run 5K each. The A team consisted of Niall Walker (19:09), Mike Skinner (16:13), Jack Kirwan (19:21) and Vincent Hastings (18:34). The B team consisted of Alessandro Tronconi (17:34), David Thomson (20:11), David Gorman (20:18) and Graeme Haddow (21:39).

With the B team's first leg runner crossing the line ahead of the A team by 1 minute and 35 seconds, some pre-race decisions appeared to have diminished the A team’s chances. However with a GB & NI international on the 2nd leg, the team went from 40th to 5th with Mike Skinner running the 5th fastest time on the day. Jack Kirwan also finished with the 6th fastest juvenile mens time and with Vincent Hastings running the 4th fastest juvenile mens time on the day, the team finished in a very respectable 6th place. The B team, with the added advantage of having Alessandro running such a fast time, also finished high up in the overall standings: a solid 13th out of the 32 men’s teams competing.

Next week will see the EKAC senior team competing at the West district cross country relays where they will be looking to improve on their finish of 7th in the 2012/2013 season.