The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
O’Neill steps up to claim win in unfavoured event
Crathes half-marathon joy for Kenny as Henderson surprises herself in women’s race
Kenny O'Neill admits the half marathon is not his favourite running distance but that didn't prevent him from thoroughly enjoying his victory in Saturday's NTS Crathes race.
TheAberdeen-basedathlete defeated a record field of 520 competitors to take the top prize in a time of 1hr 16min 20sec.
O'Neill finished well clear of Stonehaven half marathon champion Ron Gauld, who was runner-up in 1:19:50, while Andrew Morgan finished third in 1:20:10.
O'Neill was delighted with the result. He said: “I don't normally do many half marathons as I prefer to do 10Ks. Iwanted to take part in this one, however, because the company I work for, Aker Solutions, was backing it and I was taking part to support the Charlie House charity.
“The route is quite testing
“I was taking part to support the Charlie House charity”
and varied with some sections on Land Rover tracks and trails as well as roads, and that makes it more interesting.”
Gauld was satisfied to finish in second position given his lack of recent training.
He said: “I've had a hip injury for the past six weeks, so I've been doing mainly cycling to keep fit.
“I realised after twomiles that it was too fast for me, so I sloweddownquite abit and by the six-mile point I had dropped back into third position.
“I seemed to get a second surge of energy later on.”
Last year's winner, Donald Kerridge (Deeside Runners), finished seventh in 1:22:57 but took some consolation by being first home in the over-40 age group.
Amanda Henderson won the women's prize when finishing 15th overall in 1:27:53.
The Portobello Running Club member, who was only 18sec outside her best time set in Inverness two years ago, was surprised but delighted with the outcome.
She said: “I haven't been doing much racing this year so I thought beforehand that I'd be happy with a time of between 1:30 and 1:35 and also be in the top 10 women finishers.
“So I'm really pleased to have won. It's a wonderful setting at Crathes Castle and I'll certainly be encouraging more Portobello runners to come to it next year.”
Aberdeen's Debbie Moore was runner-up in 1:30:42, while Alford's CarolynMilne was the leading veteran when placing third in 1:31:08.