Oates and Ross make it a Shettleston 10,000m double

Saturday 21st April 2018

Lachlan Oates (blue vest, left)) took the Scottish 10,000m gold with Logan Rees (centre, white vest) taking silver in a race paced by Kris Jones (photos by Alex Barr)

RESULTS

Lachlan Oates has developed a level of consistency in recent years which has seen him win Scotland international vests at hill running, cross country, track and road events.

The Shettleston Harriers athlete has also collected a number of podium places including silver this year and bronze in 2017 in the National XC at Falkirk.

But Scottish Championship golds have proved elusive until he delivered a fine run to win the Men’s 10,000m crown at the Glasgow Athletics Association Miler Meet on Friday night at Crownpoint.

Lachlan’s Shettleston Harriers team-mate, Fionnuala Ross, took the Women’s gold with the Irish athlete herself no stranger to Scottish titles with significant success over the past couple of years including half marathon and 10-Mile wins.

Oates clocked 29.48.80 and Ross was at 34.05 with both well inside the time targets set by the GAA for a cash incentive. The pair thus shared the £250 prize pot.

‘I’m delighted to win the gold because I’ve only ever won one Scottish title before and that was a steeplechase race at Pitreavie a number of years ago (in 2010),’ said Lachlan, now 26, who revealed a recent spell of training with Gold Coast 2018 triathlon bronze medallist, Marc Austin, has been helpful.

‘I’ve also only raced 10,000m once before on the track – one night at Hutchesons – and it didn’t go well. This time I wanted to get inside 30 minutes and the pacing by Kris Jones was really helpful up to 6k or so.

‘Marc Austin did a few sessions with us this winter with the (John Montgomery) group at Glasgow Green and even a couple of cross country sessions and it was good for me to have someone pushing me on.

‘I think it has helped him, too, and I woke up one day the other week and learned he had won that bronze in the triathlon in Australia. He was a couple of years below me at Jordanhill School so we’ve grown up together in many ways.’

Oates will now focus on the British 10,000m Champs at Highgate with Scottish silver medallist, Fife AC’s Logan Rees, also headed for London. Rees clocked 29.59.88 to just get under 30 minutes as Stuart Gibson of Cambuslang Harriers took the bronze in 31.05.81 after seeing off the challenge of Corstorphine’s Mike Crawley.

Ross, who raced for Ireland at the World Half Marathon Champs in Valencia last month, took the Women’s gold with the silver headed for Michelle Sandison of Springburn with 36.58.93 and bronze to Fiona Matheson of Falkirk Vics in 37.05.54.

It’s understood that was another British Record for Fiona (pictured below with husband Grant) in the W55 category as she eclipsed a time previously set by Sandra Branney.

Fiona has now recorded British bests at three distances in recent weeks – taking in the 10-Mile Champs (which was a World best) as well as the 4 x 800m Record at Grangemouth and that 10,000m run at Crownpoint. Congratulations!

Giffnock North AC youngster, Ben Shaw, impressed also with a run of 33.04 at the age of 16.

A number of Masters medals were also awarded in the five-year age brackets.

Once again, all involved would offer a big thank you to the GAA for organising these meets and to the volunteers, scottishathletics Officials and pace-makers for giving their time and expertise to make the event run smoothly.

 

 

Tags: Crownpoint, Fiona Matheson, Fionnuala Ross, GAA Miler Meet, Lachlan Oates