Scottish Highland Games Association

TRACK EVENTS APLENTY AT MARKINCH

RUNNING EVENTS APLENTY AT MARKINCH writes Shane Fenton

Markinch Highland Games is one of the most popular Games on the circuit for running events with it's amount and variety of races for competitors.

The Games will once again stage a series of four 90 metres Invitation races at the John Dixon Park event on Sunday 4th June.

The invitation races will be run for male,female,veteran and youth athletes.

To qualify to run in any of the invitation races athletes must be entered in the other handicap sprint races on the packed athletics card.

Over and above the invitation races, all the usual events for athletes are scheduled to take place. Open-90m,200m,400m,800m,1600m and 3200m, the Youths athletes will have the same with the exception of the 3200m. All races have six monetary prizes, this year sees a slight increase in some of the prizes, this also applies to the heavy and cycle events.

The 90 metres track at Markinch is the only one left on the Highland Games circuit still using the 'Chariots of Fire' type, stringed-lanes. Markinch takes great pride in their athletic events and always try and have the track in tip-top condition for the runners.

This stems back to the 60's,70's and 80's when Cumbie Bowers[snr] maintained the track for his big 'school' of 20 to 30 runners training on it.

Since then Markinch has always encouraged Youth running, it's also down to Cumbie that today's youth athletes can enjoy the luxury of having so many events to compete in on the games circuit.

Back in the day the only race for Youth's on the Games circuit would be the Boys Marathon. Cumbie changed all that, with personal sponsorship, he encouraged games, not only in Fife, but further afield to introduce more races for the youngsters. And to this day nearly all games stage more youth races ranging from 90 metres through to 1600 metres.

Entries for all events are open until Sunday evening 28th May.

Published: 2017-05-25 11:01:01