The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Important domestic triumph for Maclennan
● Highland runner heads to international next weekend
Mhairi Maclennan gave herself a major boost ahead of next weekend’s home countries international in Belfast by scoring an emphatic win in the Scottish interdistrict cross-country championships at Stirling.
The Inverness Harriers club member cruised to victory in the senior women’s race, completing the 6km four-lap course in 20min 40sec to finish 15 seconds ahead of Lucy Crookes (North of England) while Morag Millar (Central AC), who won the East title at Aberdeen’s Balgownie playing fields in December, was third in 21:08.
Maclennan, a postgraduate student at Edinburgh University, had competed in this event on a number of occasions in the past when it was held at Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park, her best result coming in 2016 when she was silver medallist behind Glasgow-based Irish athlete Fionnula Ross.
She said: “It wasn’t a major aim, but I did want to win it as I’ve never done that before at the inter districts.
“I really only used the race as part of my training and I didn’t ease back for it because I have a lot of other big events coming up including the international next week.
“Morag was on my shoulder for the early stages and as it was a new course for me, and I hadn’t been able to run round it beforehand, I used the first lap to get a feel for it and work out where best to place my feet.
“I had planned to make a move after two laps but it happened before then.
“Someone shouted that I had a bit of a gap on the others but I wasn’t even aware of it.
“I glanced behind and saw that the others had dropped back a bit so I just kept it going.
“There was no need to do anything else.”
Behind Maclennan, Elgin AAC’s Kayleigh Jarrett was the first of the North District team runners to finish, taking 15th position in 22:39 while Aberdeen University’s Zoe Bates was 22nd in 22:52.
Lachlan Oates (Shettleston) won the men’s 8km race in 25:16 while Aberdeen’s Alexander Chepelin (Edinburgh University) finished sixth in 25:40, one position and two seconds ahead of Great Britain mountain running international Andy Douglas (North Highland Harriers) while Metro Aberdeen’s Cameron Strachan was 13th in 26:11.
Hamish Hickey (Ross County) led the North District select side home when finishing 22nd in 26:39. Aberdeen AAC’s Michael Ferguson was in the Scotland team which finished seventh in the international 4x1.5km relay in which Laura Muir led Great Britain to victory.