Despite a surprisingly below-par performance in the Scottish Student cross country championships, Strathpeffer athlete Hamish Hickey is confident of mounting a serious challenge for a place on the Great Britain team for the European championships.
The Stirling University athlete travels to Liverpool next weekend for the Euro trials in which he’ll be part of a four-strong Scotland under-23 team. Six places are up for grabs in the GB team for next month’s championships in Ireland.
But Hickey didn’t get the confidence-boosting win he so strongly desired when tackling the student 8k championship race at Edinburgh’s Craigmillar Castle Park.
The Highland athlete, who shrugged off a Covid infection a couple of weeks earlier, started brightly but soon faded and ended up finishing 20th, a little over two mins behind the winner.
Hickey said: “I went out as planned and got a good start on the downhill section. I sat into the top three and thought I was moving well.
“Then we went up a steep hill and I was fine, but about 100 metres after that a gap started to form and I just couldn’t do anything about it.
“I kept pushing on for a while in an effort to hold the position I was in, but even that felt tough. At the end of the day, I was just hanging on for dear life to at least try to help the team get a medal.
“We ended up getting team bronze, but we were just six points from winning. If I had run a half decent race we would have won. I’m more frustrated about that.”
Hickey is at a loss to explain why a race which promised so much ended so badly, but he’s determined to quickly put it behind him.
He said: “I only had mild Covid symptoms a few weeks ago, so I don’t think it’s anything to do with that. I feel it was just a combination of factors. My breathing was fine, but I just seemed to have low energy.
“I’ve had a couple of races like that in the past, but when it has happened the next race has been fine. So, hopefully it’ll be good at Liverpool. It’s not going to be easy to make the team, but I’ll give it a go.”
With Hickey struggling, Dundee University’s Christian Graham went on to score a clear victory, completing the course in 24min 57secs to finish 15secs ahead of Matt Knowles (Edinburgh University), while Jamie Burns led Glasgow University to team victory when finishing strongly to take bronze.
Fraserburgh athlete Max Abernethy made a major breakthrough by taking fourth place, just six seconds behind Burns.
He said: “I went into the race hoping for a top 12 placing, so to end up with fourth is amazing. I’m really pleased.”
Purcell helps Edinburgh Scottish student title
Aberdeen AAC’s Kirsty Purcell celebrated her call-up to the Scotland under-20 team for next weekend’s Great Britain European championship trials in Liverpool by helping Edinburgh University win the women’s team title at the Scottish Student cross country championships.
The first year sports science student was fifth in the 8k race with a time of 31min 16secs, while her twin sister Caitlin was also in the winning side when finishing 14secs behind, in sixth position.
Holly Page won in 29:57 and led Edinburgh to the team title. It was the club’s 18th win since the beginning of the century.
Stirling’s Sarah Tait was runner-up in 30:29, while title-holder Holly Little (Queen Margaret University) finished third in 31:01.
Purcell said: “This is the longest cross country race I’ve done as the others this season have been around 4k. And it was a tough course with lots of hills, so overall I am happy with the result.
“I got into fourth position at one point, but couldn’t quite hold on to it. Caitlin also ran well to finish sixth and it was good that we were both in the winning Edinburgh team. There’s such great depth in the squad of runners at the university at the moment.”
Zoe Bates led Aberdeen University to team bronze medals when finishing ninth in 32:11. The other Aberdeen scorers were Margarita Radeva (17th,33:41), Emma Jenkins (19th, 34:02) and Caitlin Arnott, (25th,35:24).
Banchory Stonehaven AC’s Clare Stewart, who finished 14th in 33:19, was fourth scorer for the Glasgow University side which picked up team silver medals.
The Purcell twins and Bates have all secured selection for the Scottish Student team to compete in the Inter District cross country championships at Irvine in January.
Kelly in record setting form in Fraserburgh
Scotland 100k international Jason Kelly overcame testing windy conditions to rip more than three minutes off the course record in the Fraserburgh half marathon.
The Metro Aberdeen runner, who also won in 2018 and 2019, led from the start and went on to win in 1hr 9min 33 secs. He was only two secs adrift of his personal best set in London 20 months ago.
Kelly said: “It was unexpectedly quick and I’m absolutely delighted with it.
“I was well inside 1:09 pace with three miles to go, but then we hit a slightly muddy trail section and I lost a bit of momentum. And the headwind over the final few miles made it hard going.
“But that’s the best half marathon I’ve run and I’m definitely in shape to produce a much faster time on a flatter course in better conditions.”
Kelly’s Metro clubmate Martin Mueller set a PB 1:13:08 for second position, while Keith McIntyre (Fraserburgh Running Club), competing in his first half marathon, was third in 1:13:39.
Keith Buchan (Fraserburgh Running Club), the 2006 race winner, was first in the over-40 age group, finishing seventh overall from a field of 224 in 1:17:59.
Claire Bruce clocked 1:21:40 to lead Metro Aberdeen runners to a clean sweep of the podium positions in the women’s race when winning for the third time in four years.
She said: “I think that’s the toughest half marathon I’ve done. It was good having the wind at our backs early on, but when we turned we felt its full force. So, I’m happy with my time.”
Chloe Gray was second in 1:29:11 and Eilidh Prise took third in 1:30:04. There was more Metro success when Alison Pilichos took top spot in the over-40 division in 1:40:12.