Simpson, Douglas chase Swiss bliss

Robbie Simpson (Deeside Runners) and Andy Douglas (North Highland Harriers) will compete in the Neirivue-le Moleson mountain race tomorrow, an event which doubles up as the Swiss championships.

The Scotland international duo will be looking for good performances in the countdown to important international competitions in July.

Banchory’s Simpson, the Commonwealth Games marathon bronze medallist flew to Switzerland after winning last month’s BHGE 10km in Aberdeen. He is preparing for the Zermatt alpine marathon on July 7.

Douglas, who won his fourth British mountain running title this month, is fine-tuning his preparations for the

“McGrath will represent Scotland this weekend”

European mountain running championships at Skopje in Macedonia on July 1, where he will lead the Great Britain team.

This weekend’s race, where Simpson was second in 2016, is uphill only and features a punishing climb of 1,290metres over the 10.6km course. l Banff Academy’s Sunny McGrath, who won the Scottish schools 3,000m track title last Saturday, will represent Scotland in this weekend’s international mountain running youth cup in Italy.

Bonus prizes are on offer for athletes who break the men’s and women’s course records in the Touler 10km at Tomintoul tomorrow.

The men’s record of 34min 31sec was set by Gordon Lennox (Inverness Harriers) in 2016, the same year Victoria Needham (Moray Road Runners) set the women’s standard of 39:46.

Entries will be accepted on the day at Richmond memorial hall up to 30 minutes before the 2pm start.

PREPARED: Metro Aberdeen runner Kyle Greig is competing in Austria