The brooches awarded to all finishers in the IGAL Championships in 1980.

Designed by Carrick, Jewellers, Glasgow the one on the left was for the marathon, the other for the 10K

When  Walter Ross and his fellow enthusiasts started up the Veteran Harrier movement in Scotland in the early 1970’s, no one thought that a race such a this would be one of the results.    Held at Bellahouston, starting on Mosspark Boulevard and finishing inside the park, it attracted runners – Olympians, international stars and club runners of all standards – from all over the world.  There were 704 finishers in the 10K road race and 464 finishers in the marathon.  The Scottish Organising Committee did a wonderful job and it consisted of Bob Dalgleish (Chairman) , J Bissell (JP), Owen Flaherty, Tom Fletcher, Dale Greig, Ewan Murray, Norman Ross (Treasurer) and Walter Ross (Secretary).   There were events for both men and women and the results for both will go up.

The weekend’s activities started with a Friendship Jog from the Sports Centre, started by Dr Michael Kelly at 10:00 am and many of us who would be runners in the 10K, which was at 12:30, went round the course with our families, collecting our certificates at the finish.  The atmosphere was fantastic – there was more friendliness and sheer happiness than at any race I have been at before or since.   It was also a good flat course, impeccably marshalled and with the various water, sponge and time points all operating like clockwork. The 10K assembled at 12;30 and the race went off at 1:00 pm with a single lap.  By the end of the race the first thirty finishers were:

Place

Name

Country

Category

Time

Place

Name

Country

Category

Time

Place

Name

Country

Category

Time

1

R Robinson

New Zealand

M1

31:09

11

Jim Ash

Scotland

M1

32:56

21

Rodney King

England

M1

33:55

2

Tecwyn Davies

Wales

M1

31:52

12

Raymond Hatton

USA

M2

33:00

22

Hugh Foord

England

M3

33:58

3

Bill Venus

England

M1

32:09

13

John Oliver

England

M2

33:10

23

Derek Lawson

England

M2

34:02

4

Fred Pendlebury

England

M1

32:12

14

Richard Cooper

England

M2

33:15

24

Albert Barden

England

M2

34:04

5

Pierre Voets

Belgium

M1

32:15

15

Jim Alder

Scotland

M1

33:26

25

EM Johnston

England

M1

34:04

6

David Anderson

England

M1

32:54

16

Carl Carey

USA

M1

33:41

26

John Collins

Wales

M1

34:09

7

David Hambly

USA

M1

32:26

17

Phillip Walkden

USA

M1

33:43

27

Melvyn Rawson

England

M1

34:12

8

Dan Conway

USA

M1

32:33

18

Dennis Townsend

England

M1

33:48

28

Stuart Malcolm

England

M1

34:14

9

Ron Hill

England

M1

32:49

19

Earl Ellis

USA

M1

33:50

29

William P Marshall

Scotland

M3

34:16

10

Wade Cooper

England

M1

32:49

20

Roger Monseur

Belgium

M2

33:52

30

David Pitkeathly

USA

M1

34:16

Some spot times:   50th – 35:35,   100th – 37:24,   150th – 39:11,   200th – 40:39,   300th – 43:33,   400th – 46:16,   500th – 49:59,     600th – 54:38,    last Scot – Joe Cascarina (M5) in 60:56, last finisher was Honji Takedze of Japan in category M9 in 1:24:02.

Among the familiar Scottish names crossing the finishing line were John Barrowman (Garscube – 35:0), Jim Sloss (Beith – 35:15), George Brown (ESH – 35:14), Henry Summerhill (Shettleston – 35:22), Ian Whyte (L & L – 35:22), Ian Leggett (Livingston – 35:39) and Bill Ramage (Springburn – 35:41) who were all on page one of the 13 pages of results.

The team (ie country results were not so good for the host nation with England winning six races and Switzerland and West Germany one each.  In the women’s races there were only teams in three categories,with England winning one and West Germany the other two.

Category	Country	Runners	Times
M1	England	Venus (3), Pendlebury (4), Anderson (6)	32:09, 32:12, 32:24)
M2	England	Oliver (2), Cooper (3), Lawson(5)	33:10, 33:15, 34:02
M3	England	Foord (1), Rhodes (3), Hughes (4)	33:50, 34:35, 35:13
M4	England	Booth (4), Nicholls (5), Joynson (6)	37:31, 38:04, 38:32
M5	Switzerland	Hasler (2), Graf (5),  Laniker (10)	36:02, 39:30, 41:44
M6	England	Patrick (2), Lee (4), Locke (10)	43:13, 46:00, 50:41
M7	England	Burns (3), Smith (5), Tyler (6)	45:24, 47:03,47:08
M8	West Germany	Raschke (2), Althaus (3), Wossowski (4)	51:34, 52:47, 54:28

The first Fifteen Women

Place	Name	Country	Time	Category
1.	Denise Alfvoert	Belgium	37:24	F2
2.	Yvonne Miles	England	39:16	F1
3.	Hilde Lang	West Germany	39:50	F2
4.	Marianne Buttnor	West Germany	40:37	F2
5	Judith Broomsbridge	USA	40:41	F2
6.	Pearl Meldrum	Scotland	44:17	F1
7.	Gisela Schaffers	West Germany	44:33	F2
8.	Bepthilla de Prater	Belgium	44:43	F4
9.	Ann Patricia Parr	England	45:02	F2
10.	June Aitcheson	England	45:18	F2
11.	Colette Ignace	France	45:29	F2
12.	Claudine Geudens	Belgium	45:32	F2
13.	Edith Holdener	Switzerland	45:38	F3
14.	M Culshaw	Scotland	45:40	F2
15.	Veronica Robson	England	46:01	F3

Category	Country	Runners	Times
F1	England	Yvonne Miles (1), A Tomkinson (5) D Anderson (6)	39:16, 48:58, 59.0
F2	West Germany	H Lang (2), M Buttnor (3), G Schaffers (5)	39:50, 40:37, 44:33
F3	West Germany	T Loppke ((3), I Schwarz (4), R Groth (5)	47:18, 49:36, 49:49

 Pearl Meldrum was the highest placed Scot in either men’s or women’s races and was second in her age group

The running over, there was a delegates conference at 2:00 in the Palace of Art, Bellahouston and in the evening, a civic reception and presentation of awards for the 10K at 7:00 pm.

The Trails

On Sunday, 24th April it was the turn of the marathon runners who were required to run three laps of the 14K route with Timing stations at 10, 20, 30 and 40 kilometres, refreshment stations at 11, 16.21, 26, 30, 35, 40 kilometres and sponge stations at 14, 18, 23, 28, 33 and 38 kilometres.   Appropriately enough, in the last and hardest test of a wonderful weekend, the marathon was won by the wonderful Donald Macgregor of Scotland by a full 15 seconds from Robinson of New Zealand in 2:19:23.    The big names were out in this one – an autograph hunter’s paradise for anyone into athletics history.   Donald of course, Ron Hill, Gordon Pirie, Mick Molloy, Jim Alder, Eddie Kirkup and many, many more.   Scottish marathon champions on display included Alastair Wood, Gordon Eadie and Charlie McAlinden.   The top thirty here were as follows.

Place

Name

Country

Category

Time

Place

Name

Country

Category

Time

Place

Name

Country

Category

Time

1

Don Macgregor

Scotland

M1

2:19:23

11

Staf Spaepen

Belgium

M1

2:25:37

21

Jim Kennedy

Northern Ireland

M1

2:32:47

2

R Robinson

New Zealand

M1

2:19:38

12

Bill Stoddart

Scotland

M2

2:27:20

22

Robert Daniell

Canada

M1

2:33:24

3

Derek Fernee

Canada

M1

2:19:41

13

Raymond Swan

Bermuda

M1

2:27:24

23

Gunter Brabb

West Germany

M3

2:33:26

264

Ernst Ruegg

Switzerland

M1

2:20:34

14

Peter Lawrence

England

M1

2:28:01

24

Alexander Dunn

England

M2

2:33:36

5

James Avis

England

M1

2:21:05

15

Alastair Wood

Scotland

M2

2:28:35

25

Alfred Lennon

England

M1

2:33:55

6

Eric Austin

England

M2

2:23:30

16

Michael Richardson

England

M1

2:30:09

26

Eddie Kirkup

England

M3

2:34:06

7

W Roelofs

Netherlands

M1

2:23:40

17

John Geoghegan

England

M2

2:30:29

27

Harry Gamble-Thomson

England

M2

2:34:16

8

Thomas Flory

England

M1

2:24:19

18

Mick Molloy

Ireland

M1

2:30:54

28

Ancre Monnot

France

M3

2:34:31

9

Henri Salavarda

Belgium

M1

2:24:20

19

Ken Heathcote

England

M2

2:31:55

29

Louis Struyken

Belgium

M3

2:34:40

10

Kaspar Schiber

Switzerland

M1

2:25:35

20

Charlie McAlinden

Scotland

M2

2:32:25

30

Phillip Whittaker

England

M1

2:34:47

Some spot times:   50th – 2:41:17,   100th – 2:50:39,     150th – 2:57:04,     200th – 3:07:33,     300th – 3:27:03,    400th – 3:54:07,   the last Scot was James Stuart (M4) in 4:03:59, the last finisher was Jimmy Hempenstall (England – M2) in 5:17:53.    There were four finishers outside 5 hours and 50 between four and five hours.

Other Scots crossing the finishing line on the first page of the results were Gordon Eadie (M2 – 2:35:10), Jim Alder (M1 – 2:35:59),   John Brierly (M3 – 2:39:46), John Black (M2 – 2:42:11) and James Morrison (M1 – 2:43:16).

The team races by category were as in the table.

Category	Country	Name	Times
M1	England	J Avis (5), T Flory (7), P Lawrence (12)	2:21:05, 24:19, 28:01
M2	England	E Austin (1), J Geoghagan (4), K Heathcote (5)	2:23:30, 30:29, 31:55
M3	England	E Kirkup (1), J Llewellyn (5), F Price (6)	2:34:06, 36:46, 37:19
M4	England	T Smith (3), E Joynson (6), W Brown (7)	2:50:47, 3:04:28, 3:05:58)
M5	West Germany	L Hermann (5), W Girrester (7), P Eppel (9)	2:56:53, 3:04:25, 3:14:29
M6	Scotland	G Porteous (1), J Youngson (3), B Smith (7)	2:57.0, 3:45:21, 4:18:25

But the overall Championship results were as follows …

Position	Country	Runners	Total
1.	England	J Avis (5), E Austin (6), T Flory (8)	19
2.	Scotland	D Macgregor (1), W Stoddart (12), A Wood (15)	28
3.	Belgium	H Salavarda (9), S Spaepen (11), L Struyken (29)	49

…. and the first fifteen women were

Position	Name	Country	Time	Category
1.	Carolyn Billinton	England	2:55:34	F1
2.	Toshiko Delia	USA	2:57:25	F4
3.	Patricia Day	England	3:03:26	F2
4.	Yvonne Miles	England	3:08:26	F1
5.	Ada Spiess	Switzerland	3:11:48	F2
6.	Judith Broomsbridge	USA	3:13:37	F2
7.	Lieselotte Schultz	West Germany	3:21:25	F6
8.	Hazue Yokota	Japan	3:22:52	F1
9.	Edith Holdener	Switzerland	3:26:17	F3
10.	Anneliese Schuler	West Germany	3:26:47	F4
11.	Bepthilla de Prater	Belgium	3:20:27	F4
12.	Ingrid Brab	West Germany	3:32:21	F1
13.	Greta Lindhorst	West Germany	3:32:54	F2
14.	Edith Coune	France	3:33:58	F1
15.	Renate Mende	West Germany	3:34:09

I could see no Scots women in the list of finishers and there were no women’s team results given in the official results booklet.

On the Sunday evening, There was the Farewell Dinner at Tiffany’s Ballroom, Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow City Centre which had the presentation of awards for the marathon, Dinner, Dance and Cabaret.    Well before the actual weekend of the championships, these functions were all sold out – and could have been sold out several times over!

The brooches were a master stroke: T shirts were commonplace, medals were usually fairly cheap and mementoes rather than ‘objects of desire’.   But the brooches, crafted by Carrick the Jeweller in close consultation with the organising committee were desirable in their own right.   Modelled, I think, on the clan badges sold all over Scotland, they had that symbol of eternal friendship in the middle (like a figure 8 on its side) with no end and no beginning.   For the marathon it was in red, for the 10K it was blue.   As a gift from Scotland to every vet finisher from all over the world, from USA to Japan and Australia, men and women, it was appreciated by all who took part.