Wilson cracks record and completes hat-trick

Scotland international Kenny Wilson was in record-breaking form when completing a hat-trick of wins in the ConocoPhillips 5K at Balmoral Castle on Saturday.

The Moray Road Runners club member sprinted through the finishing tape in 14min 42sec to slice 4sec off the previous mark set in 2013 by Central AC’s Olympic Games athlete Andy Butchart.

Wilson had never broken the 15min barrier in his two previous Balmoral wins, so was delighted with his performance which comes a fortnight before he wins his second Scotland international vest in next month’s Lillebaelt half marathon in Denmark.

He said: “I hadn’t thought too much about the record until someone mentioned it to me last week. But after 2km, I was off the pace so I didn’t think it would happen. But I pushed on and fortunately managed to get it.

“I’m very pleased because I didn’t really taper back on my training this week.

“It’s also great to get a record at Balmoral as the event has such a great tradition.

“Now, hopefully, I can go on to improve on my best half marathon time in Denmark.”

Callum Symmons (Aberdeen AAC) stayed with Wilson for the opening half of the race before falling back to finish runner-up for the second year in a row while Jason Kelly (Stonehaven Running Club) caught James Adamson on the line to take third spot in 16:34.

Scotland international Jenny Bannerman notched her second title in 17:01, the fastest time she has achieved on the Deeside course.

She said: “I would have preferred being under 17min but I’m happy.

“Hopefully, I’ll have recovered for the Scottish 5K championships in a fortnight.”

Great Britain junior cross-country international Anna Macfadyen (Forres Harriers) was second in 17:46 with Scotland junior international Clare Stewart (Banchory Stonehaven AC) third in 18:21.

Rob Brookes, from Monymusk, won the Apollo duathlon, completing the 6km run/16km cycle/5km run in a combined time of 1:18:25 to finish 19sec ahead of Ballater’s Dan Whitehead.

Aboyne’s Coralie Arthur, won the women’s race in 1:34:02 with the 2017 winner, Clare Whitehead, second in 1:35:53.

“It’s great to get the record at Balmoral”