The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Muir claims sixth cross country title by anchoring mixed relay success
STIRLING: Scottish star nets her sixth win at cross-country event as GB&NI claim mixed relay
Dundee Hawkhill Harrier Laura Muir chalked up an unprecedented sixth victory in the Great Stirling CrossCountry.
The European 1,500m champion anchored Great Britain and Northern Ireland to a relay victory at the event, which was switched this year from Holyrood Park in Edinburgh.
However, the outcome of the mixed relay event remained the same as the Scot earned herself a fourth consecutive international mixed relay gold.
Muir revelled in the attentions of the Scottish crowd and duplicated Alex Bell’s earlier time of 4.38 to bring the team home in a combined time of 17 minutes 36 seconds.
Europe followed home in second place in 17:45 with USA third in 18:01.
Muir, who has also twice helped Scotland to victory at the event, set off to South Africa for warm weather training yesterday in preparation for the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
She said: “It was fantastic to get such a strong lead.
“I was thinking ‘no pressure there then’ as they did such a good job of getting me in a really good position.
“When I saw they were quite far ahead, I thought I could take it a bit easier over the first half and then be strong to the finish.
“It’s quite a bit longer than I’m used to so it was a matter of judging it and being strong to the end.
“Until the halfway point, I wanted to conserve my effort. It was getting really windy so I wanted to be able to react if someone caught up.
“The crowd were so close to you and I got encouragement all the way around.
“I’m in good form now and I will continue to work hard, there’s no easy way around it. I’ll wrap myself up in bubble wrap two weeks before the indoor championships.”
Dundee Hawkhill’s Kristian Jones ran well to finish 12th in a time of 24.14.
Europe’s Elena Burkard forged ahead over the final lap of the women’s 6km race to finish in 20 minutes exact – five seconds ahead of GB’s Charlotte Arter.
Scottish inter-district senior titles went to Lachlan Oates (West/ Shettleston) and GB internationalist Mhairi Maclennan (Scottish Students).
Fife AC’s Anna Hedley shared the first lap lead in the under-15 girls race with East colleague Katie Johnson before stretching out a commanding lead over the final two laps to complete the 4km in 14 minutes 28 seconds – 42 seconds ahead of Johnson.
The only difficulty came as Hedley caught up with at least one-third of the runners in the boys’ race, with a group turning right to their third lap obscuring the Fife athlete’s approach to the finish line.
Kristof Hornyik (Dundee Hawkhill) took individual bronze for East in the Under 17s 5km race.