The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Perth athlete delighted as he posts a personal best during lockdown
ATHLETICS: Greenwood posts one-mile personal best in Findo Gask
Perth athlete Ben Greenwood never expected to post a personal best for onemile during the coronavirus lockdown – but that is exactly what the Perth Strathtay Harrier achieved last week at home on the Roman roads of Findo Gask.
Competing in the solo Roger Bannister virtual one-mile challenge, the 20-yearold clocked four minutes 07 seconds as he finished third in the overall rankings, bettering his 4:10.48 when winning the Monument One Mile at Stirling in 2018.
The GB athlete said: “It’s the strangest time trial I’ve ever done – I’d won the Scottish National Indoor 1,500m at the Glasgow Emirates Arena in January, but running along the straight Roman Road in Findo Gask, you are running blind until you hear your watch bleep at the one mile point.”
It’s certainly been a long, hard, but largely successful, road for Greenwood, who as an under-13 athlete with Perth Strathtay won his first championship title over 800m in 2010 at the now defunct Tayside Track and Field Championships at George Duncan Stadium in Perth.
Representation for Scotland followed in 2013 at the Celtic Cross-Country International at Cardiff before earning his first GB vest at the 2015 World Youth Championships in Columbia.
UK indoor 800m titles were celebrated at under-15 and under-17 level alongside the UK outdoor 1,500m title at Bedford seven years ago.
Greenwood took up a scholarship at Tulsa University, Oklahoma, in 2017 but a downside came picking up a stress fracture, heralding nearly two years of injury frustration and ruling out any chance of competing at the European Cross-Country Championships.
He explained: “Life in Tulsa was very different. I did enjoy it but with one and a half years of injury I couldn’t get enough training strung together to be able to get a good race in. In the end I had to make the difficult decision to leave.
“There were a lot of different aspects to take in – it was a tough decision, but I had to make it being constantly injured.”
Many international athletes with any knowledge of the US Collegiate system will know that the competition schedule is unrelenting and competing for the team is paramount.
In March 2019 a cautious start was made with Perth coach Catriona Tavendale and Greenwood was back running in June.
A casual outing at the Perth North Inch 5km Parkrun last October was followed by an East League XC win in November – the perfect warm-up for the East of Scotland Cross-Country Championships at Piperdam in December, where he finished second behind Dundee athlete Jamie Crowe (Central AC).
The final proof that Greenwood, who had set his sights on the European Track and Field Championships in Paris this August before they were postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak, was well and truly back on course came at the Stirling Home Countries Cross-Country International in January where he finished eighth overall and was the first Under-23 athlete to cross the finishing line.
He said: “I finished much higher than expected and I beat a lot of athletes that I didn’t think I’d be anywhere near.
“Running is pretty much all I’ve got to keep me busy at the moment so it’s good to have a focus. I’m running 40 miles a week together with 30 miles of cycling.
“I have 400m measured out on a straight main road and as it’s so quiet I can get in speed sessions there.”
You can be sure that, like the local Gask Ridge Roman roads, the pathway to better times is clear and straightforward for the Perth Strathtay athlete when normality and competition eventually get back on track.
More than 2,000 runners have signed up for Scottish Athletics’ latest virtual solo run challenge.
The entries include Scottish Indoor 1,500m champion Jenny Selman (Fife AC). Former Scottish Marathon champion Jennifer Wetton (Central AC) has already posted a time of five minutes 20 seconds.