Crowe lands gold medal treble at Balmoral; First race in Junior Hill League

Monday 24th April 2023

Jamie Crowe flew into the record books with a series of stunning performances at this weekend’s Run Balmoral meeting which attracted more than 4000 runners to Deeside.

The 27-year-old Dundee-based athlete, who represents Central AC, opened up by demonstrating a razor sharp turn of speed to smash the course record in Saturday’s Harbour Energy 5k, clocking 14:20 to slash four secends off the previous mark set by Sean Chalmers in 2022.

And this was done despite losing his lead after going off-course at one point.

Elgin-based Lachlan Oates (Shettleston Harriers) finished in the silver medal position for the second year in a row when completing the course in 14:45, and former Scottish 1500m track champion Michael Ferguson (Aberdeen AAC), competing at Balmoral for the first time, took third spot in 15:03.

Then, with little more than 60 minutes of recovery, Crowe was back on the starting line, this time for the Stena Drilling 10k.

This time he shrugged off his opponents with a performance that was oozing with power and strength, to produce another clear-cut victory. His time of 31:54 saw him finish well clear of Aberdeen AAC’s Myles Edwards (32:54) and Aaron Odentz (33:44).

But he wasn’t finished. After a good overnight rest, Crowe returned for the Bristow 15 mile trail race, cruising to a relaxed victory in 82 minutes 26 seconds, finishing three minutes ahead of Metro Aberdeen’s Kyle Greig.

Jamie said: ‘I’m preparing for next month’s Great Britain team trial for the world mountain running championships so I just want to do as many races as possible to find out about my fitness. I came up to Ballater for the week and decided to make the most of it.

‘I was surprised to get the 5k record as I went a wee bit off course. I went straight on at the point where we were meant to turn. Fortunately, Michael Ferguson called me back so I only lost five or six seconds.’

GB international Meryl Cooper (Deeside Runners) made a late surge to claim top spot in the women’s division of the Bristow 15 mile trail race with a time of 1:45:29.

Contance Nankivell celebrated her 23^rd birthday by winning the women’s division of the Harbour Energy 5k in a personal best time of 17:11. Nicola MacDonald (Metro Aberdeen) won the women’s division of the Stena Drilling 10k, recording 38:41.

With thanks to Fraser Clyne

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Photo from Shettleston Harriers Facebook page

A bumper turnout of 65 young hill runners from 22 different clubs enjoyed great running conditions at the first of this year’s scottishathletics Junior Hill League races.

The Dumyat Junior races organised by Malcolm Patterson and Shettleston Harriers offer opportunities across a number of age groups over varying length routes, with the Dumyat summit the target for U17s and U20s.

As well as development races at U8 and U11 age groups, our winners were:

U13: Chloe Simpson (Giffnock) and Rory Beattie (Harmeny)

U15: Holly Simpson (Giffnock) and Joel Gillan (Central)

U17: Katie Meek (Inverness) and Dan McGuire (Harmeny)

U20: Isla Patterson (Gala) and Harris Pagett (Strathearn)

Thanks to Run4it and the Chris Smith Memorial Fund who donated all the prizes.

Results are online

There’s not long to wait for Round 2 as we head for East Lomond on Sunday – full details via the link online.

This race will also serve as the selection race for the Scotland U18 Team (born 2006 and 2007) to go to the French Alps at the end of May for the International Youth Cup.

With thanks to Phil Mestecky

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Tags: Jamie Crowe, Junior Hill League, Run Balmoral