Cardiff downpour doesn’t dampen pride of wearing Scotland vests

Sunday 31st August 2025

From John Mackay in Cardiff

The last few days of summer have not been kind to Scottish athletes and this was the case for the team who travelled to Cardiff for the Home Countries International 5km within the Sport Shoes Home International/UK Championships 5km.

Torrential race pre race and a monsoon downpour as the women started set up a slippery course for everyone.

The setting for the three-lap course was the historic Bute Park in the centre of Cardiff with the impressive backdrop of Cardiff Castle.

Organisers had assembled fantastic fields for both the women and men’s events with the top British athletes contesting the UK 5km championships within the events.

Alexandra Bell (Pudsey and Bramley) took the women’s title from Holly Dixon in a fast time of 15.46.7 .

The Scotland women’s team had been the subject of much change leading up to the event was led home by Kirsty Walker ( 16.40 -20th ) after a battle with her international colleague Stefanie Tucker ( 16.43 -23rd ) in the home straight.

Two new faces on the international scene made up the rest of the Scotland team which required four athletes to score. Emily Carroll and Robyn Pinder were proud to pull on their Scotland vests for the first time. Emily ( 17.20 -36th ) finished just in front of Robyn (17.21 -38th ) to complete the team.

With the women drying off one of best ever men’s 5km fields in Wales was being lined up to start and so it proved.

Jack Rowe (Aldershot Farnham & District) broke the course record for 5km with a time of 13.31.9.

Top Scot was Finlay Ross-Davie who finished in 14.12 in 12th position in a high class field. Finlay has recently run 13.49.4 over 5000m in Belgium and this young U23 athlete will return back to Edinburgh University to take part in the new exciting project headed by Mark Rowland.

Next home for the Scotland team was Hamish Hickey (14.19- 17th ) with few seconds covering athletes as they charged for the finishing line.

Jamie MacKinnon was third home for the team with a time of 14.31.4 in 31st position and new athlete to the international scene, Max Abernethy 14.47.9 in 42nd position.

Team positions were based on combined times for four athletes and the positions of the home nations have not yet been made available .

It was a great opportunity for the athletes and they were all grateful to scottishathletics and the Road Running and Cross Country Commission for making this international opportunity available to them.