Jo in the mood with new personal best
Lothian runner in top form for England date
Lothian Running Club’s Jo Williams geared up for the Home Countries Cross Country International in style with a new personal best on her way to winning the Livingston Parkrun.
Jo, who will be representing Scotland at the event in Nottingham, led the 222 runners home on Saturday morning in a brilliant time of 17 minutes and 28 seconds.
Fellow LRC members Owen Williams (seventh) and Paul Young ( 10th) managed top 10 finishes while Shona Young’s time of 22.34 saw her finish fourth in the female category and 21st overall. Colin Wishart finished 12th overall on his 50th parkrun with a time of 21.10.
David Eades missed out on a new personal best by just five seconds at the Portobello parkrun but his time of 19:06 did see him come home in 10th place.
Elsewhere, the club’s Hannah Steel agonisingly just missed out on a medal while competing in the Scottish Athletics Indoor Age Group Championships at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow on Sunday.
Running in the girls under-15s 800 metres event, Hannah finished second in her heat behind Fife AC’s Anna Dalglish in a time of 2:28.88 to comfortably qualify for the final.
She then went on to finish in fourth place in the eight-runner final, just missing out on a podium place.
However, that disappointment couldn’t take away from a tremendous indoor season for the youngster, who lowered her 800m personal best on three occasions in recent weeks.
Mel Zobel was the Lothian club’s only representative in the Gartmorn 6 race on Sunday.
The six-mile race, which takes the runners on a route around the Gartmorn Dam beside Alloa and Sauchie, saw Mel finish in sixth place in the female category and an excellent 29th overall from just under 200 finishers, crossing the finish line in an impressive 43 minutes and 29 seconds.
In a busy week for the club, LRC’s Andy McKenna recorded a personal best in the Inverness Half Marathon.
The route, which starts alongside the banks of the River Ness near the centre of Inverness and finishes at Inverness Sports Centre, saw Andy finish in 2:12.17.
The race was won by Deeside Runners’ Robbie Simpson, who broke the course record with a time of 1:04.27. Simpson will be representing Team Scotland in the marathon at next month’s Commonwealth Games.