Promoting Athletics in Orkney

Orkney Athletic and Running Club

15 hours ago

Chelsea smashes Orkney women's marathon record

Hold the (digital) back page, there's one more Orkney runner from the TCS London Marathon to mention: Chelsea Cook, representing Metro Aberdeen, flew round the course to take almost fifteen minutes off her own Orkney Senior Women's Marathon Record with a chip time of 03:05:47, finishing as the 428th woman out of around 55,000!

Chelsea went through the half way point in 01:29:56, inside the Island Games qualifying standard for the half marathon, and was only slightly slower through the second half as well.

Well done Chelsea, a seriously strong performance and a big PB! ... See MoreSee Less

Orkney Athletic and Running Club

1 day ago

𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝟮𝟲/𝟬𝟰

The Starlings Open Graded, held today, was OARC’s first track and field competition of the year and attracted a bumper 103 entries. Strap yourselves in everyone, it’s a very long report!

It was an early start on the jumps with no fewer than 43 long jumpers and 17 high jumpers to get through. Across the pools, we saw fantastic high jumping performances from James Shearer (U16, 1.45m PB), Brooke Learmonth (U14, 1.26m), Robyn Begley and Elin Scott (U12, both 1.23m) and amongst the older athletes Max Linklater (U20, 1.75m) and Gerard Enemmuo (U18, 1.60m), as well as PBs for Lucas Bain, Libby Learmonth, Ruby Flett and Maisie Harcus.

The long jump pit was busy throughout the day, with standout jumps from Sophie Shearer (U14, 4.33m PB), Drew Miller (U18, 5.06m PB), Tristan Hoque (U16, 4.97m PB) and Louise Gilmour (16, 4.10m PB). We saw an inaugural U12 record for Robyn Begley, whose PB jump of 3.82m was significantly above the necessary mark of 3.68 and 35cm clear of the field, a sign of her enormous potential in both jumps events. We had 18 U10s and U12s jumping and they almost all came away with PBs which was fantastic to see.

The 5000m was the opening track event, with Craig Moar the comfortable winner in 17:48. Gary Ward and Ava Luke were neck and neck throughout the 12 and a half lap course, with Gary finishing a couple of seconds ahead in 18:10, with Ava’s 18:13 being both a personal best and almost a minute inside the Island Games qualifying standard. Elsewhere in a very fast field Mervyn Hourston’s time of 21:14 set an Orkney record in the V55 category.

It was fantastic to see a huge turnout from our primary section, with 25 competitors from the U12 category and two U10s in the new even year classifications. This meant the U12s tended to get their own heat - or four - in all the track events rather than being mixed in with the older ones.

Leading home the U12 800m were Freddie Brown, taking an enormous 26 seconds off his PB to finish in 2:58.73 and Maeve Thornton, who ran her first ever competitive 800m in 3:08.56, who required a photo finish to be separated from Maisie Harcus (3:08.57) in third. Livvy Shearer and Finlay Curtis also claimed personal bests.

Ages in the second 800m ranged from 13 to 49, with Eli Thornton (U16B) winning in a time of 2:18.31, taking four seconds off his personal best, but run close by a hugely improved Finlay Risbridger whose own time of 2:22.86 was more than 27 seconds improved on his previous best time, a significant testament to the hard work he’s put in on the track over the winter. First female finisher was Lillie Giggle-Bain (2:24.59) whose time was just a second and a half outside the Faroes qualifying standard.

The 400m followed on quickly afterwards: a word for Graham Wiggins, recently moved to Rousay and entering in his first OARC competition who was rather ambushed by the timetable into running an 800m and a 400m more or less back to back, but completed both in good spirits. It’s always great to see new faces competing at these events, especially from the senior section of the club. This race was won by Drew Miller - himself taking a short break from the long jump to compete - in 54.94s ahead of Tom Hamilton and Christopher Joos, all three finishing inside a minute. The U14 and U16 boys took on the 300m, with Alfie Hutchison taking the win in 45.18s.

The 100m is always the premier track event and one of the most popular, but today’s competition saw no fewer than 10 groups from U10s all the way up to senior athletes. Winning the four U12 heats were Primrose Robinson, Kallie Budge (in what would have been an Orkney record time but for a slight illegal wind), Emma Berry and Mason Budge: this was the first time racing over the 100m rather 75m distance for almost all of our U12 athletes and they acquitted themselves admirably. The remaining heats were won by Davy Tulloch (U14), Anna Stevenson (U14), Rhona Harcus (U16), Tristan Hoque (U16), Freya Kemp (U18) and Max Tulloch (U18). Max’s time of 11.32 seconds equalled his PB and set the inaugural U18 Orkney record, his PB having been the previous U17 record, as well as a Faroes 27 qualifying standard, which Abi Coltherd (12.6) also achieved on the women’s side of the race.

The 1500m race saw five starters, with Craig Moar finishing first in 4:52.09. Ava Luke picked up her second comfortable Island Games standard of the day with her finish in 5:00.34 and Finlay Risbridger another huge PB, this taking 20 seconds off his previous best to finish in 5:10.45.

The final track event was the 200m: most of the 100m sprinters were ready to go again over the double distance and we saw a lot of the same athletes excel. Kallie Budge ran the leading U12 time of 32.27 (about a second faster than your correspondent managed over the same distance last year - Kallie is 11) with Elin Scott (33.50s) also a heat winner, and putting down some very impressive times considering she doesn’t even start training with our primary section until next week!

A two-second PB of 32.40 was enough to Benjamin Francis (U14) to be the first finisher amongst the boys, whilst Sophie Shearer (U14) was the youngest athlete under 30 seconds in 29.31. The fifth heat saw PBs aplenty, with Eli Thornton taking 3.5 seconds off his, winning the race in 26.69s from Tyler Budge (2s improved to 27.34s) with Elliott Sinclair and Miller Harcus also improving their bests. Freya Kemp (U18) won the next in 27.06 and Max Tulloch again stormed home in 23.21 - with Games qualifying standards being achieved by both Max and Abi Coltherd (25.81s) in the final track race of the day.

On the throws side, our nine javelin throwers battled a tough headwind first thing in the morning which made PBs highly unlikely: Jamie Sutherland’s 43.61m throw was a standout in the circumstances, but conditions were a little easier for the shot putters. Dylan McEwen’s (U14) throw of 7.31m and Annie Bruce’s (U16) 6.81m were both strong PBs, whilst Mason Budge went very close to an Orkney record throwing 5.41m as an U12. Amongst the older throwers, Calum Elder’s 13.86m was a typically dominant, passing 13m with four of his five legal throws, and thanks to a recent significant birthday sets an Orkney Record for the V40 Shot Put category. Lizzie Harcus’ (U18) 9.07m was also a big PB - Lizzie had a strong all round day with a PB in the long jump and a good, if wind illegal, run in the 100m as well.

It was a fantastic day and ran incredibly smoothly thanks to the hard work of Aly and her brilliant team of officials and volunteers: a peedie mention to Susan Rendall who has spent a lot of time over the last few weeks ensuring PhotoFinish was ready to go for the first event of the season - I know I personally have never before seen so many (or in fact, any!) calm faces in the portacabin at the start of a new season.

At the break in proceedings, we also made a presentation to three people who have done a huge amount to bring OARC to where we are today: former Chair & Club Manager Inga Linklater, former Treasurer Kirsty Swan and Island Games mastermind (and thankfully not yet former competitions tzar) Aly MacPhail. The hours and expertise these three have put into the club over many years would be incalculable, and we’re incredibly grateful to all three of them.

Thank you to Starlings for sponsoring the event, and to everyone who competed, spectated, volunteered, coached and officiated. The only thing missing from the day was any photos - if you did take any, please do send some over as I haven't got any of my own!

Full results here: data.opentrack.run/en-gb/x/2026/GBR/oarcapr26/

A note on records: It's going to be a bit of a messy year for age group records with the shift to even (U12/U14/U16/U18) records. In order to set U12/14/16/18 records, the mark in the previous odd lower category (11/13/15/17) must be beaten or equalled, along with a legal wind for sprint events. As U12s will be doing 100m and 200m, not 75m and 150m, there are limited records to beat there too. There are a few records here which are unlikely to be beaten and we will take the best mark at the *end* of the season as the inaugural record. For U10s, there are no previous records so again we’ll take the best marks at the end of the season as the inaugural ones. ... See MoreSee Less