Scottish 10K Champs preview

Thursday 8th September 2016

Craig Ruddy picked up gold last year with Tewolde Mengisteab and Alastair Hay taking silver and bronze (photo by Bobby Gavin)

Road Race Grand Prix for 2016

Once again the Stirling hosts the Scottish 10K Championships on Sunday morning.

And the growing popularity of this event is confirmed by almost 1000 entries at time of writing (Thursday morning) with a significant number of those from clubs across the length and breadth of the country.

(Friday 9am: Both 10K race and 2K race are now closed after reaching their entry limits – 1000 and 110)

National medals are up for grabs for individuals and teams for an event which is kindly hosted on an annual basis by Central AC. This is the seventh successive year the venue has been Stirling.

It is also the fourth event in the five-race scottishathletics Road Race Grand Prix series which distributes £4000 in prize-money at the end of the season via a system with ‘shares’ allocated according to times achieved by athletes.

With the flat course renowned for being conducive to athletes delivering PBs, there will be excitement right through the field come Sunday and the 10.15am start in Stirling. The 10K race is preceded at 9.30am by the 2K Fun Run.

Edinburgh AC won women’s team race last year

In the Men’s race, there has been a different winner in each of the past five years with that list including the likes of Ross Houston and Andrew Butchart. Inverclyde AC’s Craig Ruddy won it last year.

Alastair Hay was third last year and is on the entry list again this time while the Women’s race should feature contenders such as Fionnuala Ross, Jennifer Wetton, Jenny Bannerman and Nicola Gauld. There’s also a first 10K for GB track and XC international, Josephine Moultrie.

In terms of the team titles last year, host club Central AC picked up the men’s team golds once again but it was Edinburgh AC on top of the podium in the Women’s team race for 2015.

Irish athlete Fionnuala Ross won the Women’s race with 34.50 her winning time but the Scottish title went to Shona McIntosh of Hunters Bog Trotters, second woman home on the day but the first eligible for scottishathletics medal.

More info plus entry list

Tags: Alastair Hay, Central AC, Craig Ruddy, Fionnuala Ross, Scottish 10K Champs, Shona McIntosh, Stirling 10k, Tewolde Mengisteab