Scots hill runners head for Keswick with selection ambitions high

Wednesday 17th April 2024

Andy Douglas and Holly Page are among a strong cohort of Scottish athletes seeking GB and NI selection 

There is a busy weekend of racing on Skiddaw, Keswick, over the coming weekend.

Mountain runners with international aspirations will be competing in the uphill only trial from Dodd Wood to the summit on Friday.

In the Europeans, there is an uphill only and an up and down for both juniors and seniors. Athletes can double up but many are concentrating on the one event this year. The uphill only trial is on Friday night from Dodd Wood running up the back of Skiddaw.

Thomas Hilton (Moorfoot Runners), Angus Wright and Isla Hedley (both Edinburgh University) are entered for the junior trial.

The senior trial also incorporates the British Mountain Running Championships and Scout Adkin (Moorfoot) will be hoping to retain her title. Kirsty Dickson (Carnethy), Jacob Adkin (Moorfoot) and Rory Abernethy (Ochil) will all be hoping for good runs.

The annual Inter-Counties Mountain Running Championships starts from Fitz Park on Sunday and incorporates the senior up and down trial for the European Off Road Running Championships.

The trial races round Latrigg, Lonscale and Little Man on the slopes of Skiddaw, covering 16k and 900m of ascent/descent.

The first two past the post in the selection race will gain automatic selection for the European Championships on 31 May.

Scotland will field strong full teams from each of the Districts. Each team contains previous GB International Mountain Runners.

For the North: Robbie Simpson (Deeside),and Ross Gollan (East Sutherland).

For the East: Kris Jones (Dundee), Jacob Adkin (Moorfoot), Naomi Lang and Holly Page (both Carnethy). Andy Douglas (Inverclyde) is competing for the West District and Scout Adkin for Cumbria.

The junior trial is the first event of the day. Covering 6.3k with 410m of ascent/descent. Jonathan Downey (Kilmarnock Harriers), Angus Wright (Edinburgh University), Harris Pagett (Strathearn), Rowan Taylor (Lasswade) and Isla Patterson (Gala) all have high hopes of making the junior team. The terrain is very wet from the non stop rain so will make going quite tough.

Good luck to all the athletes for the trials and in Inter Counties.

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Young Scots savour the superb atmosphere at the International Youth Cup in France last year (photo Phil Mestecky)

Scotland U18 vests up for grabs

For the U18s (born in 2007 and 2008), Scotland vests are available for the team to travel to the International Youth Cup (IYC) in Spain in June (https://u18cup2024.com/).

The trial will be held on Saturday 11 May at Broughton Heights, near Biggar, over a 5km course with 240m of climb and descent. Entries  https://www.sientries.co.uk/list.php?event_id=13458.

There are also races for U13s and U15s (2.9km, 130m climb/descent), U17s and U20s (both running together on the IYC trial course) with SA Junior Hill Running League points up for grabs for the U15s and U17s. For U11s, there’s a fun run over a c.1km course for which entries are on the day only.

Keep up with updates on these and other Junior Hill running events throughout the season on the dedicated junior hill running Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ScottishJuniorHillRunning.

With thanks to Angela Mudge and Phil Mestecky

Tags: hill running