World Trail Champs; Josh, Neil; Combined Events; 10Ks

Tuesday 11th June 2019

Scots with GB in Portugal – Charlotte Morgan, Jasmin Paris, Meryl Cooper and Georgia Tindley with Angela Mudge of the Team Management (photo supplied by Adrian Stott)

Four Scottish athletes represented GB and NI at the IAU/ITRA World Trail Champs in Portugal over the weekend.

And the quartet of Charlotte Morgan, Georgia Tindley, Jasmin Paris and Meryl Cooper acquitted themselves well in what was an incredibly strong international women’s field.

Leading home the British women was Carnethy athlete Charlotte, who placed 13^th in 4.26.43 in a course of just over 27 miles.

The 2018 WMRA long course champion was followed by Georgia of Hunters Bog Trotters in 25^th in 4.39.29. Jasmin was 35^th in 4.46.23 and late call-up Meryl, of Dubai Desert Trail Runners, was 91^st 5.22.22.

The French athlete Blandine L’Hirondel (France) dominated from the start to win in 4:06:17 over eight minutes ahead of New Zealand’s Ruth Croft 4.14.28. Spain’s Sheila Avlies took the bronze in 4.15.04.

In a team race dominated by the French and Spanish ladies, who placed all their three counting runners in the top 10, France came out on top by just over a minute. Romania placed third with GB not too far behind in 5^th.

In the men’s race, there was a victory for Great Britain. Jonathon Albon the Norwegian based multi endurance specialist talking the title to go three places better than his fourth place last year. Great Britain took the team silver medals behind France with Spain in third.

With thanks to Adrian Stott

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Josh Kerr is hitting some fine form in 2019 and took the win in Portland in an 800m race.

The America-based Edinburgh AC athlete raced negative splits for a big PB of 1.46.06 and that run takes him into the top ten in the Scottish men’s all-time list for the distance.

Neil Gourley was fourth in the same race with his 1.47.11 an outdoor PB with England’s Charlie Grice in second.  Guy Learmonth was also in 800m action at Hengelo in Holland where he finished sixth in 1.47.20.

And it was good to see Chris Bennett back at 70m plus form in Germany in the hammer, as his best throw reached 72.80m.

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Scottish Combined Event athletes were in action over the weekend at a European level event in Arona, in Spain.

Andrew Murphy was seventh in the Senior Men’s decathlon event with a points score of 7427. That was a PB for the GB international of Kilbarchan AAC and take him sixth in the Scottish all-time list for decathlon.

Scott Connal was in action in the Junior Men’s decathlon event and tallied 6928 to take a fine third place in the competition.

And Holly McArthur was back in CE action as she took eighth place in the Junior Women’s event with a score of 5397.

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RESULTS Roon the Toon

The Roon the Toon 10K drew 1500 runners to Kilmarnock and there were race wins for Calum McKenzie of Corstorphine AAC – with a Course Record – and Elspeth Curran of Kilbarchan AAC.

Elspeth won the Women’s race in 34.18 with her club-mate, Gemma Rankin, taking second place in 35.56. Toni McIntosh of Ayr Seaforth was third in 36.50.

Calum was home inside 31 minutes with a chip time of 30.58 to take the win in a new Course Record from second-placed Richard Mair of Kilmarnock Harriers in 31.14. Stuart Gibson of Cambuslang was third in 31.26.

*Inverness Harriers athlete Sean Chalmers won the Aberdeen Beach 10K organised by Metro Aberdeen.

Sean was home in 31.22 – and then clocked 15.05 in the Aberdeen parkrun the following day. Nicola Gauld won the women’s race for the fifth consecutive year.

Tags: Andrew Murphy, Calum McKenzie, Chris Bennett, Elspeth Curran, Guy Learmonth, Holly McArthur, Josh Kerr, Neil Gourley, Portugal, Roon the Toon 10K, Scott Connal, World Trail Champs