North mountain men put Scots on podium

North athletes Ross Gollan (East Sutherland), Andy Douglas (North Highland Harriers) and James Espie (Deeside Runners) joined forces to give Scotland third position in the 61st annual Trofeo Vanoni mountain running relay race at Morbegano in Northern Italy.

France won the race, held over a three-stage 7km loop, in 1hr 33min 29sec, while a Great Britain squad which included former Aberdeen runner Chris Smith took second position in 1:35:18.

Meanwhile Aberdeen AAC’s Will Mackay ran 2hr 28min 14sec in the Frankfurt marathon while Metro Aberdeen’s Tom Brian slashed almost nine minutes off his previous best time when clocking 1:30:57.

Metro Aberdeen’s Jason Kelly showed he had recov- ered quickly from helping his club finish 10th in the Scottish cross-country relay championships by winning the Culloden 17.46km race in 1hr 03min 58sec. Shaun Cumming was runner-up in 1:05:28 with Gordon Lennox third in 1:09:11.

Maria Boland won the top women’s prize in 1:15;37 followed by Fiona Marr (1:16:25) and Maria De La Torre (1:17:09).

History repeated itself in the accompanying 10km with Donnie Macdonald recording 32:51 to score an emphatic victory over his Inverness Harriers clubmate Paul Miller (36:21) as happened in the 2017 race. Another Inverness athlete, James Geddes, was third in 36:48.

Inverness runner Alison Wilson won the women’s race in 44:23 with Wendy Rose second in 44:57 and Katy Beck third in 45:27.

Jason Kelly was back out to win the Culloden race