Orkney AC go above and beyond !

Tuesday 11th October 2016

Nice day for a cross country – (photo via Orkney AC Facebook)

There’s nothing we like better at scottishathletics than a commitment to competition by clubs across the length and breadth of Scotland.

Thus the story of Orkney AC chartering a private plane to ensure four Senior Men could compete at the North District XC Relays for the first time in a couple of decades certainly commanded attention!

That’s exactly what happened last Saturday when Kirkwall pharmacist, and age group GB international triathlete, Torquil Clyde piloted his own plane to and from Dornoch in order to secure a seventh place finish at Edderton.

Joining Torquil in going above and beyond were Tim Ross Dan Walmsley and Huw Thomas as Orkney AC made a welcome return to mainland cross country action.

And, thanks to a 25-minute return flight, were home before most of the opposition.

‘It was a little bit of a last-minute decision to compete because we only agreed to do it just before the entry deadline for the North District XC Relays,’ said Torquil.

‘I’ve never raced in a scottishathletics event myself and I think it could well be 20 years since Orkney have had a Senior team at an event like this.

‘But the club is going quite well at the moment, including the Seniors, and one of the other guys who coaches came to me after our local 10K run and asked if we could get a team of four men together. I said the plane could be available and Dornoch really is only a short flight.

‘In fact, the plane fuel cost for the round trip is only about £100 and that’s less than it would have been for four of us to take the ferry for an hour and then drive for another couple of hours.

‘Three of the four of us have kids who are primary school age and I think the appeal of flying to compete was that we’d be home pretty sharp in the afternoon – none of us really wanted to commit to another full weekend away for a cross country race.

‘So it was all pretty easy and we just landed a couple of hours before the Senior race and headed to Edderton.

‘I don’t know if we will be back at other events this season but we will take a look at some of the dates and venues and talk about it.’