Battle in fine form before Lairig Ghru

Hamish Battle warmed up for next weekend’s Lairig Ghru mountain marathon by scoring a runaway recordbreaking victory in the Hill of Fare race.

The Metro Aberdeen athlete completed the 6.9km course, which included 260metres of climbing, in 27min 16sec to slice 18sec off the previous record set last year by Scotland international James Espie (Deeside Runners).

Jon Gamble (Aberdeen) was runnerup in 28:54, while Battle’s Metro clubmate Paul Knight was third in 29:05, when finishing seven seconds ahead of Garioch’s David Barclay, who was first in the over-40 age division.

Moira Davie (Forres Harriers) won the women’s prize in 31:15 to finish 10sec ahead of the 2015 winner Clare Whitehead (Deeside Runners), who was first over-40, while Sarah Henry (Deeside Runners) finished third in 35:57.

Deeside’s Alan Smith won the over50 men’s division in 32:11, while his clubmate Jane Oliver was the leading woman when clocking 52:57.