Helene, standing back right, with the Scottish team at Die, France, in 1989
Helene’s career as an athlete took her all over the world as well as all over the British Isles but it was Scotland that she chose to represent in international competition. The range of events that she took part in from International cross-country running for Scotland to 100km road championships for Europe is vast. We can start with her running in the World Mountain Running Trophy.
1993: Denis Bell wrote the official report on the Scottish team performance for the ‘Fellrunner’ magazine, the report on the Ladies race reads. “In the Ladies event, Helene led up the long drag halfway through the field and held on throughout with the gaps well established in front and behind. Penny had a slow start and came through about 15 places and was eventually hauled in by Dawn Kenwright (Wales) who also came through and pipped Christine; the Ladies generally captured a couple of places on the descent. A tidy bit of packing to get eleventh overall. Elspeth put in a strong descent also to get 4 places and went on strongly to finish on the last gentle run in (1 km) (a very tough exposure to her third international event.”
Helene finished 29th in 42:03. A year later, 1994, the event was held in Berchtesgaden, Germany, and Helene was 25th finisher in 44:40 with Sue Ridley 29th, Elaine McKay 32nd and Julie Farmer 47th . The team was 8th out of 17 complete teams. In 1995 the event was held in Edinburgh with the Scottish team 5th. Individual placings were Megan Smith in 15th place, Helene was 21st, Sonja Armitage 24th and Angela Mudge 46th. Angela was next selected for the Scottish team in 1997 for the championships to be held in Czechoslovakia. First Scot home was Angela Mudge in 11th, with Helene 17th, Tracey Brindley 23rd and Megan Smith 50th to be sixth team out of 16 finishers.
In 2000, in Bergen in Germany, Angela pictured below, won the race by 20 seconds with Helene 38th, J Rae 48th and Sonia Armitage 57th, team placing 8th out of 18.
Then there was the diversion of international ultra road running. In 1996 and ’97 Helene took part in the IAU European 100K Road Champs. Living in Scotland and a member of Fife AC at the time, being selected for the British – as opposed to the Scottish – team was in itself an achievement. In 1996 the competition was held at Ceder, France, and the team was third, taking the bronze medals; in 1997 with the event held at Faenza in Italy, the team again won the bronze medals.
It was back to the hills again when on 4th July, 1999 she represented Scotland in the European Mountain Running Trophy at Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria. Angela was second and Helene was 21st ,Tracey was 29th and Jennifer Rae was 49th. The team was fifth out of 14. The following year, on 2nd July, 2000, in Miedzyggorge, Poland, Angela again led the team home in 5th place with Helene in 25th. Jennifer was 38th and the team was 8th out of 14.
In 2003 she was back for Great Britain in the second European Mountain Running Champiomships in Trento, Italy as part of a very good team. The Fellrunner for October 2003 has the Team Managers Report on the race, the appropriate extract is below.
Another good race for Helene and she was rewarded with a bronze team medal.