Paralympian Derek on right road for Japan via our Tru Wealth Half

Sunday 28th March 2021

Paralympian Derek Rae proved he is on the right road for Japan this summer with a fine performance in our Tru Wealth Elite Half Marathon event on Sunday.

And Callum Hawkins swapped Kew Gardens in London for a windy motorcycle track in East Fortune to firmly underline his fitness for the Olympics.

Jonny Glen’s fine debut performance over the half marathon distance was another plus point from a Covid-approved, small-scale event at the enclosed venue in East Lothian.

The other positive for scottishathletics was the chance to pilot an event at the East Fortune circuit with a view to staging bigger road events there later in 2021 – and there is potential for the likes of 5k, 10k or half marathon or indeed Young Athletes Road Races.

‘I’ve not raced for a full year so it was great to get this opportunity – many thanks to scottishathletics and Tru Wealth,’ said Derek, whose PB is 68:22 with Sunday the second fastest half marathon run of his career.

‘I’m delighted with 69:17 as my PB is in the 68s and it really was tough in the wind today. I was very fortunate to have Callum Hawkins working as a wind-breaker for me!

‘It is all about preparing for the Paralympics in the summer and hopefully somewhere down the line I can get a couple more races in.

‘East Fortune was a good venue and I hope there was some learning there for the Events team at scottisathletics about what kind of event may work if we come back here again.

‘It is enclosed, so you don’t need to shut roads, and there’s room enough for the start-line to take a number of athletes.’

Marathon Project athletes were invited to compete along with those with Elite exemptions. Unfortunately, Scottish women who met the Elite criteria laid down by Scottish Government and sportscotland (like Steph Davis) were not available in order for us to create a women’s race.

Kenny Wilson of Moray Road Runners took fourth on the day with 68:47 but Mike Crawley of Corstorphine dropped out after around 10 miles.

‘I have to be pretty pleased with that in my first half marathon even though you are always looking for a quicker time on paper,’ said race winner Glen.

‘The course was fine but there was one section on the loop where it was a really hard shift working into the wind.’