Weekend round-up Jan 31/Feb1

Monday 2nd February 2015

Laura Muir stripped another two seconds off her recent 3000m PB in a fine run in Germany on Saturday evening.

The Scotland and GB international was in Karlsruhe for a high-level indoor meeting and she finished second in the race with 8.49.73.

Muir, of course, set a British rankings lead of 8.51 when winning the Scottish 3000m title at the GAA Miler Meet early in January.

Saturday’s run was well within the GB qualifying time (9.00) for the European Indoors in Prague next month and it remains to be seen if Laura will be looking for selection at that distance or the 1500m.

In fact, the PB was even more impressive from the Dundee Hawkhill athlete as she had been suffering from the effects of a cold early last week.

Jamie Bowie was another Scot in action in Europe over the weekend and he maintained his good form by winning the 400m race in Vienna.

Bowie, Scotland’s sole winner in the Sainsbury’s Glasgow International the week before, clocked 47.15 as he also looks to the European Indoors. Jamie is currently ranked No 3 in Britain at 400m for this season.

While on the subject of Women’s 3000m in Laura’s case, Vancouver-based Sarah Inglis is another athlete making big strides in the event.

Sarah ran a PB of 2.45 recently for 1000m and, at the weekend, she came up with 9.04.77 in Seattle to move second in the British rankings for the distance for 2015. With Josephine Moultrie at 9.07, there are three Scots in the current top three.

Lothian Running Club member Inglis actually improved her own best for the distance by a massive 22 seconds and, in the process, set a Trinity Western University record.

Edinburgh Uni’s Scotland internationals impressed at BUCS

*Callum Hawkins collected a bronze medal at the BUCS Cross country champs in Brighton in an event hosted by the University of Sussex.

Jonny Hay won the Men’s A race with Jonathan Davies in second and Callum (West of Scotland) coming home in third place over 12k on a tough course. Edinburgh Uni’s Michael Crawley was the next best Scot at 11^th place with Aidan Thompson (Stirling) at 25^th, just one place ahead of Ryan Thomson (Strathclyde). Lachlan Oates (Glasgow) finished 30^th.

In the Women’s race, it was a great day for Edinburgh Uni Hares and Hounds as they collected team bronze medals with a great collective effort.

Mairi Maclennan, Steph Pennycook and Louise Mercer had all represented Scotland in the Celtic XC event a week earlier but the Brighton conditions seemed to agree with them as they finished 16^th, 20^th and 21^st respectively.

Emelia Gorecka followed up her Great Edinburgh XC victory by winning the Womne’s race while Birmingham University took both the team titles.

There is footage on the VincoSport website.

*Chris O’Hare headed back to his Boston base after the Great Edinburgh XC run and his indoor season is up and running in fine style.

Chris finished second to Cam Levens in a high-level mile race at the Armory Invitational meeting over the weekend.

The European 1500m bronze medallist clocked 3.57.26 as he prepares for a shot at European Indoor qualifying over 1500m at the Birmingham Grand Prix later in February.

Chris tweeted later: ‘Happy to open my season at 3.57. Excited to see what is in store this year. My journey is only just getting started #faithandsweat’.

Derek Hawkins: 5-mile course record

*Derek Hawkins was in action over a five-mile distance at the Renfrewshire Road Race on Sunday.

And the Team Scotland marathon runner showed he is in good form, winning impressively with a course record 23.42 .

Results are here

*The Run 4 It North District XC Leage held its latest round of races over the weekend, with Ross County AC playing host on this occasion.

John Newsom won the Men’s Senior race and Helen Gertig took the honours in the Women’s race.

Results are now online on the league website.

There have been a number of performances across a range of disciplines over the weekend the Results Section of the ScotStats website rounds-up many of these.

Tags: Callum Hawkins, Derek Hawkins, Jamie Bowie, Laura Muir, Louise Mercer, Mhairi Maclennan, Sarah Inglis, Steph Pennycook