Glasgow Parks Championships 2021Sunday 5 December
There was a great turnout from ESOC for the 22nd Glasgow Parks Championships, on a beautiful day.
The Glasgow Parks Championships is an annual competition, with three separate short events in one day. It’s good fun and always eagerly anticipated. This year, start times were allocated in advance for all three venues (in the past, the third race has had a chasing start).
The first race was at Glasgow Green, southeast of the city centre. The terrain here is mostly flat, open parkland, giving easy navigation. Longer courses crossed the Clyde for a few controls in Gorbals North.
The second race was at Alexandra Park, not far away, to the east of the city centre. Parking was north of the M8, crossing by a footbridge to reach the park. Alexandra Park is on a hill, with a disused golf course providing fast, open running.
The final race was further east yet, at Drumpellier Country Park, near Coatbridge. This area is rougher, with terrain including dense scrub, mixed woodland and lowland heath, criss-crossed by paths and tracks. Unfortunately two of the controls were the wrong way round, which affected several courses, so a lot of people were initially shown as having mispunched although they had been in the right place. They were reinstated.
The weather was fine and sunny all day, with no wind, though it was cold. Underfoot conditions at the first two races were generally quite good, with a few icy patches on paths; it was a bit wetter underfoot for race 3.
Congratulations to the ESOC winners:
Ian Pyrah (Hypervet Men)
Eleanor Pyrah (Hypervet Women)
Calum Robertson (Junior Men)
Other ESOC members in the top half of the overall results were:
Open (18 competitors) – Andrew Lindsay 3rd, Simon Gregersen 6th, Helen Bridle 7th
Women’s Open (12) – Rona Lindsay 2nd, Alison O’Neil 4th, Sabine Oechsner 5th
Veteran Men (12) – Walter Clark 3rd, Mark Wood 4th
Veteran Women (9) – Heather Thomson 3rd, Judy Bell 5th
Supervet Men (14) – Keith Brown 3rd, Terry Johnstone 7th
Supervet Women (14) – Alison Cunningham 2nd, Helena Nolan 3rd
Ultravet Men (13) – Crawford Lindsay 2nd, Les Dalgleish 3rd
Ultravet Women (8) – Sally Lindsay 2nd, Margaret Dalgleish 4th (walking)
Further details about the event, with comments and full results, are on the STAG website:
Race 1 – Glasgow Green
Race 2 – Alexandra Park
Race 3 – Drumpellier Country Park
Other entries categorised under: Event Reports