Olympic hopefuls strengthen their case
SHOULD Beth Potter and Andrew Butchart crown Olympic year with GB vests in Rio come the summer, they may well look back on a February day in Falkirk as a staging post in their 2016 journey.
If they do not, and there are never any guarantees in athletics, then they will still be able to reflect on winning their second Scottish National XC titles at Callendar Park with a deep sense of pride.
Butchart for his part turned down the opportunity to win a British title at 3000m indoors in Sheffield on Saturday – and chase World Indoors selection – in order to deliver a successful senior men’s title defence. The Dunblanebased athlete’s victory also helped lead his club, Central AC, to a remarkable “six-in-a-row” in the men’s team race.
Potter, too, is a serial winner over the mud and hills of Falkirk having won a number of age group golds and other medals before taking her first senior women’s championship back in 2013. Potter followed that up quite emphatically on Saturday with a success she insisted featured something of a “detour” from her pre-race instructions by her coach, Mick Woods.
“I really enjoyed that today,” smiled Potter, as she came home in 29.45 over the 8K course and well clear of Fionnuala Ross of Shettleston and Rosie Smith of Hunters Bog Trotters. Olympian Freya Ross, the six-time winner, had to settle for fourth this time in her comeback year.
“My coach, Mick Woods, told me to sit-in on the first lap and advised me not to make too much of a break or go off like a rabbit. In the end, that’s exactly what I did! I just got up the first hill, felt pretty good and wanted to keep it going.
“Last year I went off quite fast, too, but I’d had one or two viruses around that time and had been unwell – so I could not sustain it, really.
“But I’d run well here in 2013 to win it and I do like Callendar Park. It has been such a good course for me over the years and, in terms of cross country, it just seems to be a place I love compared to one or two others courses.
Butchart won the senior men’s 12K as the second Lindsays Cross Country Season reached its conclusion.