Weekend Round-up 18/19 April

Monday 20th April 2015

Michael Crawley (pictured on right at Inverness Half): good run in Manchester

Michael Crawley hasn’t had the best of fortune so far in his marathon attempts with the Corstorphine AAC runner having failed on two previous occasions at the 26.2 mile distance.

All that changed in Manchester on Sunday as he came up with a terrific effort to finish fourth and beat the 2 hours 20 minutes barrier in his first completed marathon.

Crawley clocked 2.19.40 and that takes him top of the British rankings for 2015 ahead of the London Marathon and was also a Corstorphine AAC club record.

Michael represented Scotland in Antrim during the cross country season and all the training paid off in Manchester with a performance which drew widespread approval on scottishathletics social media.

He tweeted later: ‘ Third time lucky with the marathon. Record now reads: DNS, DNF, 2.19.40.’

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Lynsey Sharp, Mark Dry and Eilidh Child

A number of Scotland’s Commonwealth Games athletes from Glasgow 2014 were in action on opposite sides of the Atlantic over the weekend.

Hampden bronze medallist, Mark Dry, took part in the Alan Bertram Spring Memorial Open at Loughborough and secured victory in the men’s event with a winning throw of 71.96m.

That was Mark showing improvement on his European Throws outing earlier this year with this performance in the familiar surroundings of the Paula Radcliffe Stadium, where Scotland will compete on May 17 in the traditional match. Andy Frost was second with 66.54.

Results from Loughborough are online.

Meanwhile, Chris O’Hare was in action in the BAA Invitational road mile in what is now his home city of Boston.

The European indoor and outdoor 1500m bronze medallist had tough opposition in the shape of Ethiopia’s Dejen Gebremeskel in the three-lap road mile held two days before the annual Boston Marathon.

Gebremeskel forced the pace from the off and finished a decisive winner in 4:04.1. O’Hare was on the heels of the Ethiopian for the opening lap but faded to second in 4:07.0 with Frezer Legesse of the US third in 4:08.1.

‘I’m a little bit disappointed in the way I executed the race,’ said O’Hare. ‘I think I would have done better if I’d sat back on the opening lap but Dejen is a class act.’

Lynsey Sharp, the Commonwealth and European silver medallist, undertook a 400m race at the sprint meeting in Clermont, Florida. Lynsey was close to her PB with a run of 55.16 seconds and that will take her third in the Scottish rankings for the distance this year.

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Jax Thoirs at Glasgow 2014

Elsewhere in America, Jax Thoirs and James McLachlan were competing at the Mt Sac relay event in Walnut, California.

Jax, who was at the Commonwealth Games last summer and finished fourth, was fifth over the weekend with 5.35m. McLachlan, who is coached by Denis Costello, was third in the long jump with 7.77m.

Results from Walnut are online

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Lothian Running Club’s Scott Fraser finished fourth in the Swedish 10k Road Champs with a PB of 29.57 in Malmo. That was 15 seconds quicker than his run at Telford in December and should move Fraser to third in the Scottish 10k rankings for 2015.

Scott is currently preparing for the World Orienteering Champs – being held in Scotland later this year – after already being selected by GB.

Tags: Andy Frost, Chris O'Hare, Corstorphine AAC, James McLachlan, Jax Thoirs, Lynsey Sharp, Mark Dry, Michael Crawley