YVONNE Murray fought back tears of frustration and anger yesterday at the end of the Britannia Women's 10,000 metres in Glasgow.
Having been reduced to a walk by a severe stitch, the Commonwealth champion dropped from the lead to seventh as Australian Natalie Harvey, the World Student 10,000 metres track champion, confirmed the arrival of a new inter-national talent. The 23-year-old from Melbourne set a course record of 32min 38sec, collecting #950 and claiming the scalps of two notable Kenyans who took the minor medals.
There could be further tears from Murray today, with every indication pointing to the end of her reign as Commonwealth champion. ''I promised to give a decision by Monday to the team management, on whether I'll compete in Kuala Lumpur,'' she confessed. Pressed by journalists on her prospects for Malaysia, and her future, she demurred politely: ''Ask me tomorrow.''
A year ago, Motherwell's Murray finished this event fifth, racked by cramp; she was stretchered off on Tyneside with food poisoning; and recovering from injury, was blown away at Balmoral. It would be simplistic to portray her recent career as a series of disasters, for within the past 12 months she has also broken records held by Olympic silver medallist Elana Meyer and London marathon winner Joyce Chepchumba. Clearly, she still has much to offer, and obituaries are premature, but I believe Murray is ready to turn her back on track championships.
Yet for long periods yesterday she seemed set to redeem her fortunes. ''It's the first time I've felt like my old self, and in control,'' said Murray, ''but then I stitched, and the more I tried to relax, the tighter my stomach became.''
There is a world of difference between spring in Scotland, and the heat and humidity of a Malaysian summer, where Harvey aims to do the 5000m, but the race was also demoralising for Lynne MacDougall, who also hopes to run that distance in KL. Recently ill, she raced prematurely, finishing one place behind Murray in the record field of 4322.
MacDougall, a 1984 Olympic 1500m finalist, went with the early pace in a group of eight. Last year's runner-up, Teressa Duffy, was first to succumb, as Harvey injected a surge on a steady climb towards 3000m. MacDougall followed soon after, but Murray looked relaxed and confident, through half distance in 16-41 with Kenyans Judy Kiplimo and Lucia Subano, who has already qualified for the Commonwealth marathon. From 6000m on, however, Harvey intensified the pace relentlessly. England's Bev Hartigan dropped off next, then Murray, her stomach ''completely brick hard'', and she was soon engulfed by three pursuers whom she had dropped earlier. Kiplimo clung on longest, but could not match Harvey's concluding kilometre splits of 3-15, 3-11, 3-9, and a blistering 3-05. Details:
1, N Harvey (Australia) 32min 38sec; 2, J Kiplimo
33-02; 3, L Subano (both Kenya) 33-24; 4, B Hartigan (England) 33-32; 5, B Dagne (Ethiopia) 33-46; 6, T Duffy (Eire) 34-20; 7, Y Murray (Motherwell) 34-26; 8, L MacDougall (City of Glasgow) 34-52; 9, A McPhail (Glasgow University) 35-53; 10, L Cairns (Johnnie Walker Kilmarnock) 35-59. Junior: 1, S Partridge (Glasgow University, eleventh) 36-42. Veteran: 1, J Stevenson (Falkirk, thirteenth) 37-12; 2, F Florence (Shettleston, fifteenth) 38-13; 3, S Irvine (Bellahouston, twenty-
seventh) 40-14. Wheelchair: T Grey (Wales) 30-19.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article