The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Striding out with England
Garioch road races: Olympian helps launch next year’s Inverurie event
Olympic track athleteHannah England helped launch the 2017 Run Garioch road races at Inverurie yesterday with organisers predicting a record number of competitors next spring.
The event, nowin its 12th year, is expected to attract up to 3,500 runners, making it the second biggest sports participation event in Aberdeenshire behind the Run Balmoral races.
The programme of events, which features the RIM Fabrications half marathon, the Dandara 10km, the Eblast 5km and the CP&CO children’s runs, is to take place on Sunday, March 26.
England, the 2011 world championship 1,500metres silver medallist who competes forOxfordCity, wasin Inverurie to conduct a training session with youngsters at Garioch Sports Centre.
She said: “Mark Wylie, who organises a lot of activities for kids at the sports centre here, was really keen to do something different, something to inspire the youngsters, andsoheasked me to come along.
“It was a privilege to be invited as I love getting involved with kids at this stage and seeing how excited they are.
“It was also an opportunity to help with the race launch. The Run Garioch event seems great. It looks as though there’s a lot of community sport going on in the Inverurie area, particularly in athletics, and it’s great the local sports centre it.”
England is unlikely to be persuaded to return to Inverurie to participate in the road races. She said: “I could maybe handle the 5kmbut I don’tknowabout 10km or the half marathon. I’ve a lot of admiration for people who do these events.”
England missed out on this year’s Rio Olympic Games but participated at London in 2012, reaching the semi- finals of the 1,500m, and the following year she was fourth at the is getting behind world championships in Moscow.
The 29-year-old is now looking forward to more top level challenges in the years ahead and said: “The European indoor championships are next March and the world championships in London next summer, and I’d really like to compete in both of these events. I think I’ve a good chance.
“I’m training hard and will be putting everything into qualifying for both. The 1,500m has always been a competitive event in Britain and is even more so nowwithLauraMuirdoing well and EilishMcColgan is also capable of stepping down to that distance and putting in some great performances.
“I’ve no plans to move up in distance at the moment. All the physiological and other scientific tests we do indicate I’m well suited to 1,500m, so I’ll stick with that.”
Run Garioch race director Eric Simpson is excited by the prospects for the 2017 event in which his key objective is to increase the number of children taking part. He said: “The child r e n ’ s runs a r e my favourite races, it is fantastic to see so many taking part and enjoying themselves. Two years ago we had 350 running and last year it was around 750. Our target this time is to reach 1,000 youngsters.
“Students Ivana Taylor Ross, Courtney Simpson and Hollie Cran, who all work at Garioch Sports Centre, have taken on the task of organising and promoting the children’s races and we are indebted to them. Run Garioch has been growing every year but we also want to ensure that we maintain the quality of the event, which I think we have been successful in doing.”
Entries can be made at www.rungarioch.co.uk
“Privilege to be invited as I love getting involved with kids at this stage”