Round-up: Butchart; Ross; Masters Half; Christie

Monday 10th October 2016

Superb run at Sutton Coldfield – Andrew Butchart (photo by Mark Shearman)

Central AC once again demonstrated their strength in depth over the weekend by fielding teams at both the England Athletics 6-stage Road Relays and the East District XC Relays at Livingston.

And Olympian Andrew Butchart was very much the star of the whole event at Sutton Coldfield as he came up with a superb run of 16.29 that we understand was only four second shy of the course record.

Butchart is now second on the all-time list for the English Road Relays and his performance helped the Central squad to a solid seventh place finish in the event overall. Also in action were Jamie Crowe, Dale Colley, Conan McCaughey, Alex Hendry and Alastair Hay.

Welsh clubs impressed as Cardiff pipped Swansea for the title by just three seconds and there was a bronze team medal for Ben Stevenson with Liverpool Harriers.

Results on the England Athletics website

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GB and Scotland international Freya Ross was in action in the Chicago Marathon and clocked 2.37.50 to finish in 12^th place in the Women’s race.

The London 2012 Olympian just managed to improve on the 2.37.52 she ran in the London Marathon earlier this year.

Joasia Zakrzewski was also in marathon action in Yorkshire and ran 2.49.04 as the Scottish ultra runner prepares for the IAU/ITRA World Trail Champs in Portugal later this month.

The Scotland Commonwealth Games selection standard for Gold Coast 2018 for the marathon is set at 2.34.30.

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The Neil McCover Memorial Half Marathon, organised by Kirkintilloch Olympians, featured championships for both British masters and the Scottish Veteran Harriers Club.

Results on the Kirkintilloch club website do outline those medals for various age categories within the spreadsheet.

In terms of the race itself, Cambuslang’s Robert Gilroy won it in 71.43 from his club-mate, Kerry-Liam Wilson, with Shettleston’s Kevin Brydon taking third.

Lynn Henderson was the first woman home in 88.46 to be followed by Yana Thandrayen and Evy McKenzie.

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It has been quite some time on here since sprinter Kathryn Christie rated a mention in despatches on here – with the Scotland international not having raced since early in the 2015 track season.

So it was encouraging to read Fraser Clyne’s in the Aberdeen Evening Express that Kathryn is on the way back with rehabilitation following foot surgery.

The Banchory Stonehaven athlete won’t put a timescale yet on when she might return but hopefully the issue has been resolved.

‘The surgeon who carried out the operation found exactly what he expected to find so fingers crossed that is the problem sorted once and for all,’ said Christie, who is coached by Willy Russell and has had support from scottishathletics.

‘I am getting physio treatment and doing more work in the pool and on the bike. I hope to do some running quite soon but I am building things up gradually.’

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Tags: Andrew Butchart, Central AC, England Athletics Road Relays, Freya Ross, Joasia Zakrzewski, Kathryn Christie, Neil McCover Memorial Half Marathon, Robert Gilroy