Scotland duo Ross and Holly on podium at Snowdon International

Monday 18th July 2022

Scotland athletes in Wales on Saturday with Ross Gollan taking the Men’s victory (third from left) and Holly Page bronze in the Women’s race (second from left)

Results

Scotland’s Ross Gollan won the Snowdon International with a superb run in Wales and Holly Page added another individual medal with bronze in the Women’s race.

In very hot conditions, Ross paced the race to perfection. The Shettleston athlete allowed Ikley’s Nathan Edmonston lead to the summit and then over-hauled him on the descent to win from Italy’s Luca Merli by 40 seconds.

Ross had a far from prefect preparation for the event. After racing a World Cup event last weekend his flight home from Italy was cancelled and rescheduled for Friday.

As it turned out, this flight was significantly delayed and meant Ross arrived in Llanberis at 2am on Saturday morning!

The unexpected week in the soaring temperatures of Italy seemed to work in his favour at Snowdon as he was well acclimatised to the sun . . . but the lack of sleep probably didn’t help.

John Yells had a strong run to finish 10^th and unfortunately in his first international James Taylor fell on the descent and hobbled into the finish.

They are on there way at the @SnowdonRace hot day ? in Llanberis pic.twitter.com/6s26tBdLqV

— Pete Bland Sports (@peteblandsports) July 16, 2022

This year’s Women’s race was the closest there has ever been with the first three women finishing within 37 seconds of each other.

Edinburgh Uni Hare and Hounds athlete Holly, now eligible for Scotland, crossed the line in an excellent third after an exciting battle on the descent with England’s Hannah Russell coming from behind to take the win.

Kirsty Dickson, also in her first Scotland international, raced well to finish sixth and Catriona MacDonald followed closely behind in eighth. Caroline Marwick backed up the team in 14^th.

At the race start there was a minute’s applause to remember Chris Smith who won the race in 2016 and whose family have donated a trophy in memory of Chris.

Congratulations to the team and their coaches for their performances in what were very testing conditions in the heat of Llanberis.

Thanks to Stephen Edwards for organising another great edition of the event.

With thanks to Angela Mudge