March 11 2026
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OARC AGM set for Monday 16th March
February 18 2026
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Today was graduation day for Ola Thompson, Sophie Black, Amy Walker, Yvonne Rendall, and Amy Sutcliffe from the OARC Couch to 5k group.
They have done incredibly well over the past 9 weeks of training. Going from running 1 minute at a time to completing a whole parkrun. Just fantastic and heart warming to see!
Hopefully another group of graduates at next weeks parkrun! Well done everyone and thank you to Carrie and Sarah for organising and delivering another successful Couch to 5k group!
Congratulations and nice to see an Isle of Wight hoodie on show.
Loved every minute!! We get so much out of seeing everyone succeed and the pure joy on everyones faces โค๏ธ Well done again x
Oh ..so well done! Now you know you can do it!! Great ๐
Well done ladies!๐๐
Well done lasses
well done all ๐
well done ladies!
An email went out last night about a club trip to the 2026 North District Championships on 16/17 May in Aberdeen. Last year we took a huge team and it would be great to repeat it: it's a great first trip for some of the younger ones as it includes an U12 SuperTEAMS competition on the Sunday morning as well as U14, 16 events and guest slots for U18, U20 and Senior athletes. Please do check your emails for details and message us if you haven't received anything or have any questions.
The OARC Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on Monday 16th March at 7pm in St. Magnus Suite at Picky, with a video call link also available for anyone who cannot attend in person. Any member, parent/guardian of a junior member or interested party is invited to attend and help set the future direction of the club. It would be great to have a good turnout, as there are some significant decisions to take. Any thoughts or questions from those who cannot attend can be submitted in advance, and you can also arrange for a proxy vote if you wish.
You can find the Agenda and related papers on this page: www.orkneyarc.org.uk/2026-annual-general-meeting/
I would like to particularly draw people's attentions to the proposals for two paid roles and an appeal for trustees, explained in the Chair's report:
"To address the remaining coordination workload, the Board is proposing two paid roles, details of which are in the AGM papers. The first is a short-term piece of work to set up software and processes that would reduce the long-term administrative burden on volunteers. The second is a Club Development Officer role, focused on coach and athlete development.... The club currently has three vacancies on the board and I'd encourage anyone interested to put their name forward: you don't need to take
on a significant role immediately, but you will be part of club decision-making and help secure a positive future for athletics in Orkney.
2026 Annual General Meeting | Orkney Athletic and Running Club
www.orkneyarc.org.uk
AGENDA Agenda_ OARC 2026 AGM 16th March 2026 (3)Download Files linked to in the AGM Agenda are reproduced below: Chair's Report Chair's Report 202 ...
Today’s Inverness Half Marathon and 5k saw a small army of Orcadian runners descend on the capital of the Highlands, completing the 13.1 mile course in a race that doubled (tripled?) as the Scottish Half Marathon Championships and North District Half Marathon Championships as well.
Congratulations to local dentist Annabel Simpson, representing Fife AC, on winning the women’s race in an unbelievably impressive time of 1:13:47 and becoming the first person ever to hold the Scottish Half Marathon and Dounby 10k titles simultaneously. Now there’s a record that might stand the test of time!
Elsewhere in the field, as a club we were absolutely delighted to see two of last year’s Couch to 5k participants - Karen Petrie and Jennifer Rosie - make their way around the course with our Couch to 5k course leader Carrie Gunn in 2 hours, 31 minutes and 30 seconds (Jenny actually seems to have been given a chip time of 2:31:29 so I guess she gets the bragging rights!). It’s such a tribute to the work that Carrie and Sarah put in that folk have stayed running beyond the course and carried on building the miles up until they can cover this distance - is St. Magnus next?
The race organisers were keen to announce that this was the first ever gender balanced Inverness Half, but Orkney thoroughly overdelivered on International Women’s Day - at my count there were at least 26 Orkney women competing and just three representing the fellas! There was also a notable contingent of five women from Westray, the Queen of the Isles being well represented on race day.
Congratulations to everyone who took part, and we look forward to you all lacing those running shoes back up for the Shapinsay 10k on 18th April and the rest of our home running season!
Some of the Orkney runners results (this is everyone who put OARC as their club and then everyone else I could find, but I know there are more - please let us know if you’re running and we’ll keep an eye out for the results)
Annabel Simpson 1:13:47 (representing Fife AC)
Colin Barnett 1:22:20
Chelsea Cook 1:25:30 (representing Metro Aberdeen RC)
Eion Ballantine 1:28:30
Vikki Budge 1:32:53
Dawn Williams 1:42:16 (representing Vegan Runners)
Hamish Shaw 1:47:52
Lisa Foulis 1:49:33
Rosemary Donaldson 1:51:25
Theresa Sandison 1:53:36
Tina Brown 1:55:02
Karriz Baird 1:56:25
Ruth Spence 1:57:43
Shona Croy 1:58:02
Paul Humphreys 1:58:31
Sasha Ratnayeke 2:00:20
Julie Johnston 2:00:38
Sarah Baillie 2:01:08
Shelagh Hutchison 2:00:39
Sarah Jessen 2:06:09
Kerry Michie-McDonald 2:07:55
Judith Bonner 2:09:08
Sherine Deakin 2:20:30
Kathleen Matheson 2:21:55
Gina McMahon 02:30:58
Karen Petrie 2:31:30
Jennifer Rosie 2:31:29
Carrie Gunn 2:31:31
Carla Deakin 2:41:20
Imogen Sawyer 2:53:58
That's another five added - Eion, Hamish, Rosemary, Imogen & Paul. Congratulations all!
Ruth Spence 1:57:43 ๐๐ป
Also Paul Humphreys in 2.02!
And I made it over the line eventually at 2hr, 53m and 58 seconds ๐ having travelled down from Sanday ๐
Well done folks!
Well done all great results ๐๐ป๐๐ป
Well done everyone! ๐ช๐คฉ
Well done all of you โบ๏ธ fantastic results ๐๐
Paul Humphreys
Great results, well done everyone๐๐
Well done everyone ๐พ๐พ
Well done everyone ๐ฅณ
๐๐๐จ๐ญ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ก ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฉ ๐๐ก๐๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ฉ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ฒ ๐: ๐๐ซ๐ค๐ง๐๐ฒ ๐๐๐๐จ๐ซ๐๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐๐๐ข & ๐๐ฅ๐ฌ๐ข๐
For the second day of competition in the Scottish Athletics U20 Age Group Championships, Elsie, Emily and Abi were joined by Connor Harcus, with Tristan having completed both his events yesterday.
Connor has had an injury disrupted indoor season: his 200m time today of 23.66 was about a second outside his PB and narrowly missed out on progression to the semi final, but it was great to see Connor back competing and hopefully the outdoor season ahead will be injury free and see him progress back towards the records he was threatening consistently last year.
Our first record of the day went in the U20 women’s 200m, with Abi Coltherd storming home in 25.34 to take more than two seconds off the Orkney U20 Indoor 200m record and four hundredths of a second off the senior record: congratulations Abi. Abi’s time saw her progress to a very strong final in which she finished fourth in 25.60, a very impressive showing against some terrific sprinters. Analysis from Coach Mags on this one: “A superb run in a tight lane 2. Fantastic from an athlete who missed a lot of her fundamental speed endurance work over the winter! Summer is calling!”
Emily McArthur followed up her 800m silver yesterday with a final in the 400m: she led her heat start to finish in a time of 59:34 and improved on that with 59:01 to finish fifth in the final: Emily has gone significantly faster over this distance already this year but this was her fourth race of the weekend and none of the four who finished ahead of her had run in the 800m yesterday - two were focusing solely on the 400m and two had run shorter races. A word though for the winner Cara Monachello of Kilmarnock Harriers - who ran 56.04 in her first competitive 400m. Cara is 15 years old running in the U20, already holds a Scottish age group record in the 300m and has put in brilliant performances in the 200, 300, 800, 60h, High Jump, Long Jump and Shot Put during the indoor season. These Championships occasionally showcase names you’ll hear again and Cara Monachello will be one of them.
Elsie Hutchison was covering even more distance over the weekend, having completed the 800m yesterday before today’s - blessedly straight to final - 1500m. Elsie flew round the track in a huge PB of 4:56.13, her first time under 5 minutes and almost four seconds faster than she covered the same distance at Scottish Schools a few weeks ago. This is an U20 Indoor 1500m record as well so well done Elsie!
Congratulations to Elsie, Emily, Abi, Tristan and Connor on your performance over the weekend and thank you to Mags and Julia for accompanying them.
Thank you also to Angela Shearer who completed her Coaching Assistant Course in Glasgow today - we're looking forward to having you on the team!
Later tonight I'll have a (long!) post about goings on at the Inverness Half Marathon today, which seems to have featured about 25% of the population of Orkney!
Thank you for your kind words about Cara. See you at the outdoors
Well done all of you ๐
Superstars ๐คฉ๐คฉ๐คฉ
What a great weekend for you all ๐คฉ
Congratulations to all, an exciting outdoor season ahead ๐
Well done everyone ๐ ๐คฉ
Fantastic results all! Well done!
Well done to you all. ๐๐คฉ
Wow, congratulations to you all!๐คฉ
Well done โ
Fantastic ๐ well done everyone!
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As well as providing regular athletic instruction and training sessions, one of the key aims of OARC is to promote pathways to performance and as part of this, the Club organises and participates in a range of home and away competitions throughout the year.