The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Keith prepares for return to fast lane
Great Britain junior cross country and orienteering international Megan Keith has been starved of competition over the past six months, having competed just once, in Aberdeen’s only track and field meeting of the summer.
But the 18-year-old Inverness Harriers club member is now looking forward to the possibility of two quality races in the space of 24 hours.
She has been invited to take part in the Podium 4K cross country match at Barrowford, Lancashire on November 7 and plans to head back up the road to represent Inverness in the Scottish 3K cross country meeting at Cumbernauld House the following day.
Keith said: “The organisers of the Podium race got in touch with my coach Ross Cairns to ask if I’d be interested. It looks like a very high quality race and it seems as if it will be a well organised event, so I’m excited about doing it.
“But we’ ll have to see what the situation is like by then. I really hope it will still be safe to attend, but I might have to make a late call about it.
“The same goes for the meeting at Cumbernauld the following day. If all goes to plan, I’ll do both, but at the moment I can keep my options open. We hope to have a strong Inverness team taking part.”
Keith feels she’s in better shape than at the beginning of September when she recorded a personal best 5,000m time of 16min 50.03secs in the Aberdeen track meeting.
Despite being more than 30secs quicker than she had run before, Keith wasn’t too happy with the outcome.
She said: “I think because it was my first race for a long time I was a bit too eager at the start and paid the penalty later on and struggled a bit. Conditions weren’t great either.
“I feel I’ve come on a bit since then. We finished summer training and started more specific cross country work at the beginning of the month.
“It’s hard to tell how I’ll get on when I race again, but I’ll give it a good go.”
Keith’s plans for the rest of the winter are uncertain as the cross country fixture list remains in a state of flux with event organisers doing their best to grapple with a difficult situation.
Her longer term future has, however, been mapped out as she intends heading south to further her academic and sporting interests in 2021.
She said: “Next year I’ll attend Edinburgh University to study sports science but in the meantime I’ll be based in Inverness.”
Keith will be joined in the Podium race by her Inverness clubmate and Great Britain senior inter national Mhairi Maclennan.
Meanwhile, Inverness runner Keith has received two major accolades at the scottish athletics annual awards event which was held virtually because of the current restrictions on social gatherings.
The 18-year-old, who left Millburn Academy during the summer, was named under- 20 athlete of the year and also received the George Dallas Memorial Trophy.
She is only the second north runner to have won the age group award, middle distance runner Mark Mitchell of Forres Harriers having been the recipient in 2007.
And Keith becomes the third athlete from the north and north- east to have won the Dallas prize
The award, first made in 1982, is given to the person considered to have achieved distinction in cross country, road running, track and field or hill running in Scotland during the year.
Don Ritchie, the multiple ultra distance running world record holder, a past member of Aberdeen AAC, Forres Harriers and Moray Road Runners who lived in Lossiemouth, won it in 1992.
And Zoey Clark, who has won a clutch of silver and bronze medals at world and European level as part of the Great Britain 4x400m relay squad over the past few years, received the award in 2017.
Keith has proven over the past 12 months that she is one of Scotland’s best young cross country runners.
Her victory in the under20 women’s race at the national championships in February capped an impressive winter season.
She also won gold at the national short course championships in November and was first in the Home Countries international in January.
Keith also made her Great Britain debut last December, helping the side win team gold at the Euro cross championships in Lisbon.