Weekend 22/23 August: Hill runners joy; BMC Solihull; Dublin

Monday 24th August 2015

The Scotland men who won Senior Home International

Scotland’s hill runners did themselves proud at the GB World Trial and Senior Home international in Wales over the weekend.

Three athletes secured automatic places for GB for the forthcoming World Mountain Running Championships over the same course at Betws-y-Coed.

And the Scotland Senior Men celebrated a fine win over England and the other nations in the Home International as the 1-2 finish of Robbie Simpson and Andy Douglas proved unstoppable.

Tom Martyn (9^th) and Andrew Lawler (14^th) were the other counters for the Senior Men with Sam Hesling at 25^th. Andrew also medalled as the first U23 in the Senior race as Scotland scored 17 points to England’s 19. Tom’s performance was a really good one in his first World trial.

In the Junior Men’s race, there was a superb individual gold as well for Jacob Adkin of Moorfoot Runners and Jacob will now land GB selection for the Worlds as will Robbie and Andy.

For the Scotland women, Georgia Tindley made a really strong effort in her first World trial after winning her first Scotland vest at Snowdon. George finished 10^th with Louise Mercer (14^th) and Sophie Horrocks (15^th) taking home silver and bronze U23 medals, as well. Megan Crawford (16^th) completed the Scotland scorers for 32 points with England on 15. Charlotte Morgan was 17^th in the race and Moira Davie 20^th.

In the Junior Women, there was a fine performance by Emily Nicholson for a fourth-place finish which was just outside the three being selected for the team.

With thanks to Malcolm Patterson

Jake Wightman wins Seniors title at Aberdeen

BMC Grand Prix, Solihull, 22 August

Former European Junior 1500m champion Jake Wightman sliced a tidy 0.57 seconds off his 800m PB with a winning time of 1:47.36 in the two-lap A race. This was only a week after winning the Scottish Seniors title in Aberdeen.

Olympian Tom Lancashire emerged victorious from the men’s 1500m A race, clocking 3:39.35 as Shildon’s GB U23 international Cameron Boyek clocked a lifetime best of 3:39.15 as runner-up to make another imprint on the Scottish all-time list.

Alexandra Bell won the women’s 800m A race in 2:01.96, with Emily Dudgeon second in 2:02.28. Victory in the women’s 1500m A race went to Ireland’s Ciara Magian in 4:07.17, a PB, with Scottish cross country champion Maddie Murray second in 4:10.17, Jessica Judd third in 4:12.08.

That was another 1500m PB for Murray – and moves her up to seventh on the British rankings for the event for 2015 and within a couple of seconds of third place behind Beijing duo, Laura Muir and Laura Weightman.

Solihull Results are online

Meanwhile, in Belgium, Guy Learmonth claimed an 800m victory in Antwerps with 1.47.49 on Saturday.

And, at Lee Valley, there was a fine 100m run by Scotland international Adam Thomas. Adam finished fourth and his 10.38w has only been bettered by Nick Smith in the Scottish rankings over the past 10 years. (Info via Scotstats.net website)

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Kilbarchan AAC’s Gemma Rankin

The Frank Duffy 10-Mile road race in Dublin always has a good reputation as an international event and this year there were podium places for two Scots.

Irish athlete Maria McCambridge (Ire) won women’s race in 55.28 with Gemma Rankin of Kilbarchan AAC second in 57.30 and Jenny Bannerman of Inverness Harriers third in 58.59.

Tags: Adam Thomas, Andy Douglas, Cameron Boyek, Hill Runners, Jacob Adkin, Jake Wightman, Maddie Murray, Robbie Simpson, Senior Home International, World Mountain Running Champs