After the wind and the rain had battered the ski resort over the two previous days, the sun was out for a beautiful Sunday at Glencoe Mountain Resort, for the Scottish National Downhill Championships.
Saturday’s gusts of 70mph had cancelled all practice runs and created a knock-on effect for Sunday’s race day; with riders only having one race rather than the usual two. Riders had to give it their all on one of the most brutal tracks on the Scottish calendar.
The senior open title would go to pre-race favourite and defending champion Joe Connell, who was also the fastest rider down the track on Sunday. His time of 3:03.113 was enough to secure the title by three seconds from Steampunk’s Drew Carters and Charlie McIver in third.
In her two previous events this year, Emma Wood (Royal Navy) would finish third and second, but on Sunday it would be third time’s the charm, as she powered to the senior female title, with a a strong time of 3:34.789. Peebles native Emily Carrick-Anderson (Peebles CC) would take home the silver, with the multi-disciplined rider only 1.9 seconds behind. Charlotte Tuckwood (Heriot Watt) claimed bronze – and also took home the student title.
Heather Wilson (Muc-off) would take the junior female title with an excellent 3:24.814 – the Forfar rider is taking a step back this year from World Cup events but still showed the quality she has in abundance with the quickest female ride of the afternoon. Megan Horne would impress too, to come home in second with a 3:26; Hollie Alderson would take third.
Perthshire’s Ben Wright (Tay Titans) would take the junior open title with a 3:08.154, besting Creag Muir (Black Isle) by only eight tenths of a second; with Fraser Paterson (Borders College) in third place.
In the super competitive open youth event Monty Palmer bested Sam Maclean (Ben Wyvis) to take home the gold medal and champions jersey, with Ruari Younie the bronze. Only 1.4 seconds seperated Palmer’s winning time of 3:14.3 from Younie on the final step of the podium.
Katy McGowan took home the female youth gold, with her 3:46.233 enough to take the victory from Eve Douglas (Deeside Thistle). After a nasty looking fall on the mid section of the course, Kacy Millar remounted to come down to the finish to take third.
The first riders down the mountain on Sunday were the juvenile open riders and Millar Davidson produced a storming ride to take the gold – his 3:11.065 bettered all the riders in the youth category and would have been good enough to finish eighth in the elite field. Hamish Cairns claimed silver with Jackson Cleal taking the bronze. Esmie Carruthers won out in the female event with Izzy Blackman (Race Craft) taking the silver.
A time of 3:15.044 was enough for Jon Stout (Scottish Downhill Association) to win out in the Masters category, with Ruairidh McRitchie in second and Andrew Donnachie in third.
Shona McKinnon scored the female veterans title with Sara Allan taking the silver and Laura Lawrence in third. In the open field, John Young’s 3:18.340 was enough to take the top step and the no-alcohol fizz that came with it, with Chris McCann and Alan Todd rounding out the podium.
A huge thanks to the team at the Scottish Downhill Association for their efforts in organising the Championships on a hectic weekend in Glencoe, as well as to the volunteers that supported the event. It was excellent once again to head up the A82 for a day of fantastic downhill action.