Athletics: Scott Fraser finishes strongly in cross country event

Jan 14 2010 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

LOTHIAN RUNNING CLUB’S Scott Fraser did his bit to take the spotlight off Kenyan Joseph Ebuya's win and the great Kenenisa Bekele's shock defeat at the BUPA Great Edinburgh International Cross Country by crossing the line in 19th place.

Fraser covered the tricky snow covered 9k course in Holyrood Park in 31:44 which was an excellent result given his preparation and the fact he was up against a quality international field. Scott was originally down to set out and instruct on a navigation course at a hill running training weekend at Wanlockhead.

But when the weather forced its cancellation he got a last-minute call-up to run for the Scottish Universities team at the prestigious capital event.

And a recent month-long illness had restricted his training to less than three weeks.

The race also incorporated the Scottish Inter-District Championships, in which Scott placed seventh which helped his Scottish Universities team claim the District title.

The Lothian club's Iain Donnan had also secured a place in the East District team for the Inter-District championship.

Unfortunately he got a chest infection three days before the event and wisely did not run in the freezing conditions.

A few of the club runners were amongst the just over 1500 who participated in the BUPA Great Winter (4K) and Junior (2.5K) runs also staged around Hollyrood Park on Saturday.

In the 4k Ross Milne did well to finish in 15th place in 14 minutes 39 seconds.

He was followed home by club-mates Donna Grieve 437th (21:04), Ian Hall 679th (22:55) and Gillian Jewel 867th (24:19).

In the Junior runs, Andrew Lickley was 16th in the 10-13 years category with sister Amy fourth in the 7-10 age group.

Lana Turnbull was the only club athlete to brave the snowy and icy conditions at Saturday's Edinburgh 5k Parkrun. In tricky underfoot conditions Lana completed the course in 22 minutes 43 seconds to place second female and 25th overall of the 52 runners who completed the course.

Hopefully there will be an improvement in the weather for this weekend with the third and final match of the East District Cross Country League scheduled to take place at Broxburn on Saturday where a healthy contingent of Lothian Club runners are expected in the various categories.