Scotland take on Scandinavia at the Jukola Relays
Last weekend SEDS sent two teams over to Finland to compete in the biggest relay in the world, the Jukola.
Each year this race sees up to 30,000 people descend upon it’s competition centre to watch and race. After a few days training near Helsinki the Scotland teams made their way to Mikkeli. The girls were first off on a sunny Saturday afternoon with over 1000 other teams. Solid first runs from Hazel Wright, Hollie Orr & Jessica Orr saw the team move steadily up the field to send off Mhairi Mackenzie in 137th place. Mhairi stormed past the competition and came back in 96th place. A great performance for such a young team. As the sun set it was time for the boys to go to work.
Pre-Jukola hype got the punters excited with Jon Musgrave offering 40 GBP per runner if the team were to beat the current record for a British team of 41st back in 1993.
BANG!! and Jukola was underway. Strong night legs by Doug Tullie, Anthony Squire and Oleg Chepelin kept Scotland in the 70’s by dawn. More consistent running by Mark Nixon, Andy Kitching and Alasdair MacLeod set Murray Strain off onto the last leg in 75th position. Another great last leg by Scotland, Murray came back into 63rd, second non-Scandinavian team. A fantastic weekend with some strong running by every team member. This year a bench mark was set by the team which demonstrates that Scotland is more than capable of competing with Sweden, Norway and Finland. Next year the bench mark will be raised and Jon will be out of pocket as Scotland will aim for a top 40 performance and a new record position for a British team. Look out for a full report in the next issue of SCORE.
Report by Mark Nixon,
with a little editing by Oleg Chepelin
Posted on 19th Jun 09
by Oleg Cheplin - Marketing & Communications Director
Filed under: News
Other recent items in the same category
