Banchory Stonehaven AC’s Rhona Auckland hopes to add to her medal tally when she runs in the senior women’s race in the Scottish 4km cross-country championships at Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park on Sunday.
The third-year Edinburgh University medical sciences student won the under-20 age group title last year when she was first overall in the combined senior and junior races.
But Auckland is wary of making any predictions as to how this weekend’s contest is likely to unfold.
She said: “I haven’t seen an entry list but there’s a lot of women running really well at the moment, so I know it will be a tough race. It looks as though the course will be quite muddy, which should help me as I prefer these conditions.”
Auckland, who won the River Ness 10km in Inverness at the end of September, opened her cross country season with an emphatic victory in an East of Scotland League race at Stirling last month.
She said: “I was really pleased with that performance as it was my first cross country run for a long time.
“My training has being going well and I feel fitter than last year. I’m doing longer repetition runs and some longer runs generally, so that’s made me stronger.”
While this weekend’s race is important, Auckland admits she has a bigger target in mind later this month when she competes in the Great Britain team trials for the European championships. She was part of the British squad which won team gold medals in the Euro under-20 championships in Budapest last winter, but she has now moved up an age bracket.
Auckland added: “I’ll be trying for a place in the under-23 team but the trial for that age group is combined with the senior women’s race.
“It will be tough because I’ve been keeping an eye on the English results recently and there’s a lot of strong opposition.”
Auckland’s opponents on Sunday include Aberdeen-based Moira Davie (Forres Harriers) and Stornoway’s Eilidh Mackenzie.
Thurso twins Oonagh and Emma Dunnett will represent Edinburgh AC in the under-20 women’s race in which Aberdeen University’s Halina Rees (Fife AC), Shetland’s Katie Bristow (Ron Hill Cambuslang Harriers) and modern pentathlon international Eilidh Prise (Aberdeen AAC) should also feature strongly.
Scottish junior hill running international Lucy McLeod joins Lise Theron and Ellen Stickle in the Aberdeen AAC squad for the under-17 girls’ 3km in which Nairn’s Rachel Mclennan is also taking part. Talia Mathers (Aberdeen AAC) and Clare Stewart (Banchory Stonehaven AC) carry north-east hopes in the under-15 girls’ 2km.