Promoting Athletics in Orkney

Orkney Athletic and Running Club

2 days ago

Scottish Sea Farms Stromness Shopping Week 10k

A fantastic field of 59 runners completed the Scottish Sea Farms Stromness Shopping Week 10k today, the race returning after a fallow year in 2025 with great support from locals and visitors. I think everyone who’d entered may have woken up with a little regret with strong winds and rain all morning, but the rain had stopped well before the start and whilst there was still a fair bit of wind around, conditions were certainly improving through the race.

There have been rumblings of slow post in Orkney recently, but there were no such issues today in Stromness as visiting Dutch runner Benjamin Post powered around the Stromness hills and through the winds to finish in 34:22, taking the victory by 27 seconds from OARC's Ewan Foubister who finished in 34:49, with both young athletes posting very impressive times around a challenging course in tough conditions. It’s fairly unusual in Orkney distance running for the veteran men not to have things all their own way, so chalk one up for the seniors! John Gonnella was third home and first veteran in 36:30 with Gary Ward and Craig Moar rounding out the top five.

The women’s race was also closely contested between two Orkney triathletes, with Caron Oag taking the win in 45.45, narrowly ahead of St. Magnus Winner Rebecca Learmonth (as she definitely likes to be called) who finished in 46.06. In other categories, Dawn Williams was the first veteran female in 47.59, James Leonard the first super veteran male in 47.23 and Donna Stephenson the first super veteran female in 62:12.

Thank you to everyone who took part, and to our fantastic team of marshals: Jacqueline Innes, Fiona Morgan, Katie Hall, Rosalind Spence, Liz Foubister, Mervyn Hourston, Evelyn & Hilary Grant and Avril Bain, as well as Carrie and Sarah for keeping everything running smoothly on the day, to Leigh for printing the medals and to Craig for setting everything up beforehand and putting it away again afterwards. Thank you to the Ferry Inn for the use of their garden, to Scottish Sea Farms for the sponsorship and to Julia’s Shed for providing us ice cream to spend the sponsorship on! Thank you to the Royal Party for coming down to present the trophies to Caron and Benjamin, and thanks to the Shopping Week Committee for all your hard work putting everything on.

Next up on the home road running calendar is the Sunnybank Half Marathon - newly renamed from the less catchy Kirkwall Half Marathon (Route 2) - this is the Island Games loop course and as a result, we’re going to offer it as a relay as well as an individual race. Entry details to follow tomorrow! Full results of the race below, let us know if anything doesn't look right. Participation league update in the week! ... See MoreSee Less

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2 days ago

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Orkney Athletic and Running Club

1 week ago

OARC athletes competed in two events in Aberdeen this weekend: yesterday’s half marathon and today’s Aberdeen Amateur Athletics Club Summer OGM.

In the half marathon, Karen Petrie picked up a more than fifteen minute personal best, crossing the line in a chip time of 02:16:02. Karen was part of Carrie & Sarah’s original Couch to 5k group so to see her continuing to run long distances faster and faster is a fantastic thing. I’m told she did run in an Orkney vest but the pictures in the finishers t-shirt look better! Other OARC finishers that I can find (the results don’t have a club search option so please shout if I missed you!) included Laura Baker in 01:52:02, Rosemary Donaldson in 01:48:25 and Hamish Shaw in 01:42:28

Today’s track & field meet was a windy affair without a lot of potential for legal perfomances. Long jump is also a wind gauged event, so it was great timing for Dillon Hume that the wind settled right down for his longest jump of the day, 5.58m representing a 40cm personal best and a reward for hard work in training. We have a real batch of talented long jumpers now developing under the watchful eye of Lyle, Kerri & Steven and that’s fantastic to see.

In the sprints, times were not wind legal but seriously impressive: Sian Smith ran a tenth inside her personal best in 12.42s over 100m and four tenths inside her best over 200m, clocking 26.07s, showing some fantastic form ahead of hopefully calmer days ahead! Max Tulloch was also competing over 100m and 200m, continuing his friendly rivalry with Kian Redman of Shetland: the two finished neck and neck in both events. In the 100m, Max’s time of 10.92s is not only his first time under 11s but the fastest time I’m aware of by an Orkney athlete in any conditions - I know Neil Gray ran a 10.98 with the wind in 2006, but if anyone can top that, let me know! We don’t have wind assisted records or anything like that, but it’s always interesting to keep track. Over 200m, Max’s 22.55s finish was again well inside his personal best.

Well done to everyone traveling to compete and please keep us up to date on how you get on! ... See MoreSee Less