Hefty pre-race showers left the going as officially ‘skitey’ for the 18th running of the Caerketton Downhill Race, aka ‘The Doonhiller’. The weather didn’t deter 43 seniors and 10 juniors from tackling the downhill courses and it remained dry, although very blustery, for the race itself.
Despite the conditions underfoot, Luke Park (HBT) posted an impressive 5m31s for the fastest downhill of the night, with Lucy Haines (Edinburgh Uni) fastest woman in 7m38s.
The most impressive run of the evening went to Don Reid (Westerlands) who not only finished first veteran in 7th overall, but first vet 60, just missing Les Turnbull’s vet 60 record by 3 seconds. Don won some vaseline in the lucky(?) prize draw and it remains to be seen whether this may yield the marginal gain required to snatch the record next year. Other category winners were V40 Jonathan Weir (Unn), V50 Stuart Lampard (Unn), V70 Hugh McPherson (Tinto) & F50 Kath Henly (Carnethy).
In the junior race, Tom Maguire (Lasswade) led the mass start field down the hill, finishing in 3m14s. First girl was Robyn Lupton (Haddington), 6th overall in 5m40s.
The senior race is part of the Alternative Carnethy 5 series of races this week, and 25 club members competed in the Doonhiller. See the club website for more details. Results
Mark Johnston