Butchy staying upbeat
Andy Butchart insists it wasn’t a gamble to kick off his Olympic year with a crosscountry outing – even though his hopes of a winning start fell flat.
The 28-year-old took a mud bath from a fall before roaring back for fourth at the British Cross Challenge.
He wasn’t the only one, with more than 3000 runners surviving the storms that turned Kings Park in Stirling into Scotland’s biggest waterlogged pitch.
Scotland’s men took team gold for only the second time after a team led by Derek Hawkins won in 2012.
Butchart said: “My missus is confused as to why I was here.
“But I don’t care if I didn’t win the race, it’s not the Olympics. You always want to win a race wherever you are.
“During the race that never came into my head but then when I fell, I thought, ‘I don’t care’.”
The Scot, an Olympic 5000metres finalist, was joined on the deck by Wales’ Kris Jones.
But the Dundee Hawks star hauled himself up to deliver a late charge to win by 10 seconds from Scots rival Jamie Crowe.
Butchart had opened a gap with a couple of laps to go and Jones said: “I thought, ‘That’s it, he’s gone’. But over the course of the lap he started to come back to me. I pushed back and I’m just happy to win.”
Cross Challenge champ Kate Avery won the women’s race by 11 seconds from Abbie Donnelly as England topped the standings.
Mhairi MacLennan finished fourth as she plans for a halfmarathon debut in Barcelona next month.
The Scots aid :“It’ s time for a new challenge.”
Meg an Keith and C era Gemmell made it a Scottish one-two in the Under-20 women’s race.