Simpson comes out on top in Glen Clova half marathon

Deeside’s Robbie Simpson, who hopes to represent Scotland at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, took a break from his high mileage training regime to win the Glen Clova half marathon.

The Banchory-based athlete, who celebrates his 26th birthday this week, recorded 1hr 8min 1sec for the undulating loop around the Angus countryside.

It is the second fastest winning time in the 26- year history of the race and Simpson was only 41sec adrift of the event record set by Metro Aberdeen’s Fraser Clyne in 1991.

Simpson said: “It went pretty well. Despite there being more hills in the first half, my second half was slower because we were running into the wind.

“I was still on target for the record for the first 10 but just couldn’t run fast.”

Great Britain 10,000m track international Kristian Jones (Dundee Hawkhill Harriers) was second in 1:12:39.

F o r f a r ’ s A n d r e w Woodroffe (G Squad Triathlon), who had won in each of the previous two years, recorded his best time for the course, 1:15:19, to finish third. Run Garioch half marathon champion Roger Clark (PH Racing), from Crieff, was first over40, fifth overall, in 1:20:36.

Anwen Darlington (Dundee Road Runners) won the women’s title when finishing 16th overall from a field of 283 in 1:25:43. Anne Hartmann (PH Racing) was runnerup in 1:26:43 and Alison Thomson (Kent AC) took third position in 1:28:10. l Inverness athlete Mhairi Maclennan finished fourth in the under-23 age division of the British cross-country challenge fixture at Tear Drop Lakes, Milton Keynes.

Loughborough’s Jess Judd, the world championships 1,500m semi-finalist, was the overall winner of the 5.9km race, and first under-23, in 19min 52sec, while senior age group runner Gemma Steel (Charnwood) was second in 19:54.

Maclennan, in her final competitive outing before taking part in the British European cross-country championships team trials at Liverpool this month, was 13th overall in 21:01. l Gordon Lennox set a course record time of 1hr 5min 27sec when winning the 11-mile Tain hill run in which his Inverness Harriers clubmate Michael O’Donnell finished 29sec behind in second, while Ally Beaven (Highland Hill Runners) was third in 1:06:53.

Caroline Marwick (Inverness Harriers) won the women’s race in 1:20:24, with clubmate Anna Church second in 1:23:42 and Susan McDonald, of Tain Joggers, third. l l

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