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Great Britain international Megan Keith to make late call over Baxters River Ness 10k

Megan Keith holding a medal up and giving the camera a thumbs up
Megan Keith (Inverness Harriers).

Megan Keith (Inverness Harriers) will make a late decision over whether to compete in the Baxters River Ness 10k but the Great Britain international admits the lure of bidding for a third win in a row in her hometown race might prove too strong to resist.

The 20-year-old European junior cross country champion made a big impact when winning the women’s division of the 10k three years ago, then repeated the feat in 2021 after the 2020 event was cancelled because of the pandemic.

Her winning time 12 months ago, 34min 22sec, was the second quickest in the history of the event, bettered only by the record 33:46 set by Kenyan athlete Cathy Mutwa in 2006.

Keith, a student at Edinburgh University, said: “I haven’t decided for sure if I’m going to run, so it will be a late call.

“I took a longer break than usual after the track season and it was later than normal, so I only returned to training recently.

“On top of that I picked up a bit of a cold when getting back to university, so it’s not ideal.

The race Keith gets ‘most excited about’

“But, I love the race. I have to admit it’s the race I get most excited about. It’s a fantastic occasion and it pretty much goes past my house so there’s plenty of people on the course that I know. So, we’ll see how things go. If I do it I might find it difficult to just treat it as a steady run. I’d probably go out all guns blazing.”

Keith’s Inverness clubmate and fellow Great Britain international Mhairi MacLennan also plans to tackle the event for the first time. The national cross country champion has the quickest 10k time of any woman in the field, having clocked 32:59 at Brighton in 2019.

However, it will be her first race for a few months following a bout of illness, but Keith reckons her training partner will be more than ready for the challenge.

She said: “Mhairi is preparing for a half marathon in Portugal later in the month and I know she’ll be strong.”

Keith also reckons that middle distance star Jenny Selman’s appearance in the contest will spark interest as the 800m specialist steps up to tackle 10k for the first time. The Fife AC runner represented Great Britain at this year’s world indoor championships in Belgrade before competing for Scotland at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

Keith said: “Jenny is very fit and although she told me she’s not expecting to run much quicker than 37min, I’m sure she can go much faster. So, we’ll see what happens.”

Metro Aberdeen’s Ginie Barrand is also expected to be in the mix. The Banchory-based athlete, who made a successful debut for Scotland in August’s Antrim half marathon, set a record 10k time of 36:07 on the testing Run Balmoral course earlier in the year, but is expected to be much quicker on the more favourable River Ness route.

Scottish under-17 cross country champion Louisa Brown (Garscube Harriers) could also make her mark as could Giffnock North’s Valencia Wright.

Pushing through the pain

It will also be intriguing to see how three-time previous winner Jenny Bannerman (Inverness Harriers) fares. The Scotland international is taking part in her first competitive race since giving birth to her first child just three months ago.

Sean Chalmers is prepared to push through the pain barrier in his bid to retain the Baxters River Ness men’s 10k title. The Aberdeen-based PE teacher, who represents Inverness Harriers, won last year’s race in 30min 15secs, having previously finished second in 2019.

He’s keen to put in another top-level performance on Sunday but a troublesome stomach and groin problem has hampered his progress in recent months.

Chalmers, who won the Scottish 10k road running title at Kilmarnock earlier in the season, said: “I had problems in my stomach area when running in the Seville marathon in February and I’ve had pains ever since. I was in a lot of pain after the Stirling race. I’m running sub-30mins for 10k but I want to be pushing on for the low 29s and getting sub-14mins for 5k.

“There’s little doubt it’s going to hurt at Inverness, as it has done in every race for quite some time. But I’m getting treatment and a rehab plan. So, I’ll try to get things sorted after this one. I’ve taken a few days off training and then some easy runs in the countdown to it. So, I feel I’m still in sub-30min shape and I hope to run well enough, but we’ll see.”

Fraserburgh Max Abernethy, runner-up last year, isn’t competing so the main challenge to Chalmers could come from Kent’s Owen Hind who set an excellent time of 29:11 in 2020.

Fellow Scotland international Lachlan Oates (Shettleston Harriers) will also be a contender when trying to improve his personal best time of 30:11. James Wilson (Moray Road Runners) and teenager Lucas Cairns (Inverness Harriers), a Scotland junior international, are others expected to be among the chasing pack along with track international Stephen Mackay (Inverness Harriers).

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