Runners up for a virtual challenge

The latest virtual challenge organised by Scottish Athletics amid the coronavirus outbreak took place last weekend.

And there was, once again, plenty of success for Perth Road Runners in the various categories.

The challenge for participants was to run as far as they could in 15 minutes and the distance would be their‘score’.

Each individual’s score was added to the club’s total distance and this saw the Perth club finish in second place in the total distance category for over 18s.

The club also gained podium places in various age categories for total distance, including third in senior women, second in MV45 women, third in MV45 men, first in MV50 men, first in MV55 women and second in MV60 women.

Another of the categories, for four person teams, saw Duncan Ryan, Greg Simpson, Erni Hamilton and Lisa Aikman finish in 21st place out of 174 teams.

Duncan, Greg and Erni combined with Gillian Douglas to finish as the club’s top mixed masters team, an impressive fifth place in their category.

Individually, there were also podium places for Perth in their age categories and Duncan Ryan was second MV50 having covered 4.41km in 15 minutes.

Robin Livingstone was third MV65 with 3.64km while, for the ladies, Erni Hamilton was first in the FV55 category with 3.89km and Gillian Douglas second with 3.46km.

The last two weeks of the club’s virtual race series, organised by Mike Dales, saw members run 1500m and 6k - and there have been more impressive solo performances.

After recording times of 4:38 and 20:50 respectively, Duncan Ryan continues to lead the pack on 395 points, followed by Kevin Riddell on 387 points who ran the distances in 4:43 and 21:14.

Greg Simpson has moved up to third place after recording the fastest 1500m time in 4:37 and 21:24 for the 6k.

For the females, Rose Ryan continues to lead having recorded times of 5:27 and 25:02, followed by Claire Douglas 6:11 and 26:07 and Lisa Aikman 6:01 and 26:20.