Great Britain international Mhairi MacLennan’s inspired victory in the senior women’s race capped a memorable day for Inverness Harriers at the Lindsays Scottish cross country championships.
The Highland club came away from Falkirk’s Callendar Park with three individual titles and a team trophy from the national competition, which was cancelled last year because of the pandemic.
MacLennan, who had won this title on two previous occasions over the previous four years, was always in command as she sussed out her rivals in the early stages before going on to dictate the pace of the race.
The Edinburgh-based athlete never looked like losing as she completed the three-lap 10k course in 36min 36secs to finish 51secs ahead of mountain running international Scout Adkin (Moorfoot), while the 2017 champion, Morag Millar (Central AC), was third in 37:39.
Aberdeen AAC’s Naomi Lang, who has only recently recovered from injury, did well to take fifth position in 38:14.
MacLennan said: “It was good. I felt really fit going into the race, but with cross country running, I always know that anything can happen on the day.
“I took the first lap cautiously to see where everyone was at. I wanted to read the race and used different parts of the course to inject a bit of speed to see how everyone responded.
“I kept doing that on the second lap and managed to get a bit of a gap and I was able to extend my lead on the third lap.”
MacLennan’s Inverness clubmate, European junior champion Megan Keith, defended her under-20 age group crown with an emphatic victory by completing the 6.8k course in 24:24.
The Edinburgh University undergraduate also led her side to the team title with fellow students Cera Gemmell (25:56) and Hannah Anderson (26:53) taking individual silver and bronze.
The third individual Inverness gold went to Lois Macrae, who won the under-13 girls’ 3.2k in 12:42 to get the better of Eilidh Dallas (Statheran, 12:56) and Freya Brown (Team East Lothian, 12:58).
She is the third Inverness athlete to have won this title since championships for this age group were first held in 1966 – Anna Cairns (2019) and Briony Swanson (2002) being the others.
It completed a fine domestic season for the youngster, who has also won the North championships, the North league and the Inter District championships.
St Andrews University student Kristof Hornyik won the under-20 men’s 6.8k in 22:08, while Inverness Harriers won the team title for the first time.
Luke Davidson (10th, 23:38), Lucas Cairns (14th, 23:55), Angus Smith (19th, 24:21) and Euan Rollo (22nd, 24:37) packed well to secure the gold medals. Aberdeen AAC’s Adam Brown was the top north-east performer when finishing eighth in 23:37.
Aberdeenshire runner Millie McClelland-Brooks (Glasgow School of Sport) took silver in the under-15 girls’ race in which third-placed Caitlin Heggie became the first athlete from Ross County AC to win a medal in this age group.
North pair second and third in men’s race
Jamie Crowe (Central AC) finished ahead of a field of 624 runners to win the Scottish senior men’s cross country title for the second time after an exciting tussle with East Sutherland’s Ross Gollan and Caithness athlete Andy Douglas.
The Dundee-based Great Britain international, who plans to compete in the 5k and 10k at next month’s Run Balmoral festival of running, completed the testing 10k course in 32min 36secs.
Gollan, who was representing Shettleston Harriers, was second in 32:44, with Douglas finishing a further four secs further back to take bronze.
Crowe said: “It was an honest race from the off and on the first lap I couldn’t actually get to the front to push it on because Ross was already pushing it on.
“I knew after the first lap what I wanted to do and where I wanted to try and get ahead and I managed to open up a bit of a gap on the second.”
Crowe also led Central AC to the team title for the 11th season in a row with backing from Strathpeffer’s Hamish Hickey, who was fifth in 33:07, and Aberdeen University student Tom Graham-Marr, 11th in 33:38.
Michael Ferguson was the top Aberdeen AAC finisher in 20th position and his club took eighth spot in the team competition, with 56th-placed Kyle Greig leading Metro Aberdeen to ninth.
Aberdeen AAC lifted team silver in the under-15 boys’ 4.3k race through the efforts of Rhys Crawford, 11th, Thomas Reynolds, 14th, Finlay McKay, 18th and Oscar Chirnside, 20th.
Ross County’s Andrew Baird was the top north finisher in fifth position.
Fraserburgh’s Israel Noble was eighth in the under-13 boys’ race.
Torphins’ Alisha Rees sets new 60m PB at British indoor championships
Aberdeenshire athlete Alisha Rees was pleased to break her own Scottish indoor 60m sprint record when finishing second in the British championships at Birmingham.
Cheyanne Evans-Gray (Croyden) took the title with a time of 7.25secs, well inside the qualifying standard of 7.30 for the world indoor championship to be held in Belgrade, Serbia on March 18-20.
Banchory Stonehaven AC’s Rees was agonisingly just outside the required mark when clocking 7.31, but took some consolation by shaving 0.01 off the Scottish record she set two years ago in Sheffield.
She said: “During the week I wasn’t sure if I was going to Birmingham, but I’m happy that I did. It was good to get a PB, even if it was by a small margin, and a silver medal.
“To be honest I hadn’t even thought about the world championship qualifying time, so just missing it doesn’t really bother me as it wasn’t in my head to begin with.
“I’m going to take a week off training now then start building towards the summer.”
Rees’s clubmate Claire McGarvey narrowly missed a medal when equalling her PB of 1.78m to finish fourth in the high jump.
The Banchory athlete, who is a student at Glasgow University, cleared the same height when winning the Scottish title in January.
Aberdeen AAC’s Jane Davidson didn’t qualify for the final of the 60m hurdles, but the sports science student achieved a personal best and club record time of 8.59secs when finishing fifth in her heat.
Her clubmate Hannah Cameron also notched a PB of 4:33.56 to finish 10th in the 1500m won by Adelle Tracey (Guildford and Godalming) in 4:13.14. Scotland’s Erin Wallace (Giffnock North) was second in 4:14.72.
