The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Mackay ambitions for Frankfurt face stern examination
Olympians Hawkins and Tewelde race
Aberdeen AAC’s Will Mackay is to line-up alongside Scotland’s Olympic Games marathon representatives Callum Hawkins ( Kilbarchan AAC) and Tsegai Tewelde (Shettleston Harriers) in Sunday’s Great Scottish Run half marathon in Glasgow.
For Mackay the race will be another stepping stone along theway to an appearance in the Frankfurt marathon at the end of this month.
On Sunday he finished fourth in the Baxters River Ness 10km and the winner of the race, Edinburgh AC’s Neil Renault, will be another of his opponents this weekend as will John Newsom (Inverness Harriers) who was one position and 14sec ahead of Mackay at Inverness.
Mackay is planning a couple of other races before heading for Germany where he hopes to improve on his best time of 2hr 26min 34sec set at London in2015. He said: “I certainly hope to do better at Glasgow than I did in the Great North Run a few weeks ago. I did 69mins which isn’t great, but it was a warm day and it’s not as easy a course as people might think. I’d like to run about 67min in Glasgow.
“I’ve spoken to a few people who have run Frankfurt in the past and they say it’s a good course.
“I’d like toget around 2hr 22min there, or at least somewhere in the low 2:20s, but I don’t think I’m capable of sub 2:20 at the moment. I’m competing for my English club, Bedford, in the national road relays at Sutton Park the week after Glasgow.
“I also hope to run for Aberdeen AAC in the Scottish cross country relay championships as we have a strong squad with the likes of Michael Ferguson, Broc Drury, Rory Muir, Rory Stead and others.” Mackay knows he will be facing quality opposition on Sunday with Hawkins, in particular, looking to impress in his first race on home soil since his outstanding ninth place at the Rio Olympics.
The race includes the Scottish half marathon championships and the Kilbarchan runner will be keen to add that to the national marathon crown he won at London in April.
Hawkins finished second to Kenya’s Moses Kipsiro in last year’s Glasgow race and will be aiming to go one better on this occasion. Tewelde, who failed to finish in Rio, is also hoping to play a prominent part.
The 26-year-old settled in Scotland eight years ago to escape military conscription in his native Eritrea. He almost died when he was blown up by a land mine before taking up residence in Glasgow after competing in the World cross country championships in Edinburgh in 2008.
Kipsiro is, however, slight favourite to retain his title. The Ugandan Commonwealth Games 10,000m champion clocked 62:18 last year.
Others expected to feature at the head of the field include America- based Fifer Andrew Lemoncello and Chris Thompson, the European 10,000m silver medallist.
“Hope to do better at Glasgow than I did in the Great North Run”