The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Stewart rounds off season with personal best
Aberdeen AAC’s Scottish 400m champion Kelsey Stewart ended her track season by setting a personal best 800m time of 2min 6.41sec in the British Milers Club grand prix meeting at Trafford.
Leeds athlete Alex Bell, who finished fifth in the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, won in 2:01.64 with Ireland’s Alanna Lally pipping Stewart for second position in 2:06.26.
Michael Ferguson (Aberdeen AAC) produced his quickest time of the year when clocking 3:50.85 for second position in the 1,500m won by Daniel Bebbington (Preston) in 3:49.25.
Aberdeen University medical student Zoe Bates was a little over one second outside her best time when finishing sixth in the women’s 1,500m in 4:32.14. Jenny Selman (Fife) won in 4:24.19.
Aberdeen AAC’s James Hoad recorded 1:09:59 to win the Nairn half marathon ahead of a field of 200 runners.
John Newsom (Inverness Harriers), winner for the previous three years, was runner-up in 1:13:46 while Jason Kelly (Stonehaven Running Club), winner of the previous weekend’s Dyce half marathon, was third in 1:15:47.
Rachael McCuaig (Nairn) won the women’s title in 1:35:11 with Chris- tine MacVeish (Lothian) runner-up in 1:37:32 while Elizabeth Kerr was third in 1:38:00.
Hamish Battle (Metro Aberdeen) won the Cheyne hill race near Stonehaven for the second year in a row.
The Robert Gordon University student completed the four mile course, which included 740ft of climbing, in 25:09, 24sec outside the record set by Scotland international James Espie (Deeside Runners) in 2016.
Owain Bristow (Aberdeen AAC) was second in 27:38 with teenager Josh Benton (Deeside Runners) third in 28:03.
Dee Watters won the women’s race in 33:55 while her Deeside clubmates Katie Henderson (35:41) and Marie Entwistle (36:04) were second and third respectively.