Doney’s better by half with power finishing

Metro Aberdeen’s Tom Doney used the ultra-distance running strength he developed in China to help come through in the closing stages to take second position in yesterday’s Fraserburgh half marathon.

The Ellon-based athlete was lying in an isolated third position behind his Metro Aberdeen clubmates Jason Kelly and Chris Richardson with a couple of miles to go.

Kelly was well out of reach but Doney sensed Richardson was struggling and decided to make a final push to close the gap. He claimed second spot in 1:14:13, with Richardson third in 1:15:08.

It was a fine performance from Doney who had set a personal best marathon time of 2:38:24 in Amsterdam four weeks earlier.

“It was a good time for me to do a half marathon”

He said: “I let Chris go earlier on as I was happy with the pace. Later I could see that the gap wasn’t growing and I was eventually able to catch him.

“I felt fine as I think I have recovered well from the marathon. This was a good time to do a half marathon as the tiredness from Amsterdam was out of my legs.”

Doney, who comes from Kemnay originally, has returned to the north-east after spending a year living in China where he got the bug for running races of between 30km and 65km.

Jamie Coventry picked up the age 4049 men’s prize when finishing fifth overall in 1:18:10, while his Metro Aberdeen clubmate Richard Horne was first in the 50-59 category, 12th overall in 1:19:41, with Phil Owens (Garioch Road Runners) heading the over-60s field in 1:39:13.