Inverness Half Marathon review; Long Throws

Monday 9th March 2020

Weynay Ghebreselasie celebrates his win in Inverness with silver medallist Kenny Wilson (right) and bronze medallist Cameron Strachan (left)

By Fraser Clyne

Weynay Ghebreselasie produced an impressive performance in windy conditions to win the Inverness Half Marathon, but the Glasgow-based Eritrean athlete was disappointed with his time.

The Shettleston Harriers runner, who also won here in 2017, took an early lead and was never seriously challenged as he made his way round the 13.1 mile course to reach the finishing line in 65.06 – 39 seconds outside the record set by Deeside’s Robbie Simpson in 2018.

Ghebreselasie, who had recorded 64:19 in London the previous weekend, was hoping to run much quicker to give his confidence a boost ahead of next month’s London marathon.

‘I tried to do my best today but it was too windy and I was on my own the whole way,’ said Weynay.

‘I’ll now go back to Ethiopia for a few weeks to continue training for the London marathon and try to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. That was my aim but I am still waiting for Great Britain citizenship which I applied for months ago.’

Kenny Wilson took second in 66:35 and Cameron Strachan was third in 66:50. Strachan also led Metro Aberdeen to the men’s team prize with backing from Will Mackay (fifth, 67:15) and Ben Ward (ninth, 71:37).

Congratulations on #IWD2020 to top 3 women in yesterday's #InvernessHalf Marathon 2020!

🥇Liz Abbott, Lytham St Anne's Road Runners 1:17:53
🥈Kerry Prise, @MetroAberdeenRC 1:18:18
🥉Jennifer Wetton, @Central_AC 1:21:07#runinverness #invernesshalfmarathon #MedalMonday pic.twitter.com/Isfai3xiyN

— Inverness Half & 5K (@NessHalfMar) March 9, 2020

Liz Abbott (Lytham St Anne’s) successfully defended the women’s title by completing the course in 77:53, just over one minute slower than her 2019 winning time.

The Lancashire athlete was pleased with the result and has vowed to return in 2021 in a bid to complete a hat-trick of victories. She was chased all the way by Metro Aberdeen’s Kerry Prise who set a personal best time of 78:18 to take second position.

Prise led Metro Aberdeen to the women’s team prize with and Jenn Wetton of Central AC was third in 81:07.

*Lucas Cairns (Inverness Harriers) won the accompanying 5km fun run for the third year in a row, recording his fastest time of 15.58.

Inverness also dominated the women’s division of the 5k, with 17 year-old Emily Andrew winning in 18:56.

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2020 season under way, happy with the season opener and the win 56.38m
2020 let's be having you 💪👊 pic.twitter.com/OBqIQxDYAP

— Kirsty Law (@Kirstylawdiscus) March 7, 2020

Scottish discus champion Kirsty Law made a very solid start to 2020 with a victory today at the Long Throws meet in Loughborough.

Kirsty won the Women’s Discus event with 56.38m and was delighted with that as an opener for the year.

Nick Percy won the Men’s Discus event with 58.25m and in the Men’s Hammer there were fourth and fifth places respectively for Chris Bennett (69.27m) and Ciaran Wright (65.97m).

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Tags: Chris Bennett, Ciaran Wright, Inverness Half Marathon, Kirsty Law, Liz Abbott, Loughborough Long Throws, Nick Percy, Weynay Ghebreselasie