Laura Muir swapped a packed stadium in London for Kirkcaldy High School on Saturday as she raced for the first time since the World Championships and the double London 2017 finalist didn’t disappoint the crowds in Fife at the Lindsays Short Course Champs as she won the Scottish 4K XC gold for the fourth time in five years.
It was a typically imperious performance from Muir to make it a hat-trick of consecutive wins in this event, finishing in 12 minutes 53 seconds almost a full minute clear.
Central AC’s Cameron Boyek meanwhile proved his class to take victory in a keenly-contested senior men’s race, winning Boyek by four seconds as his rivals battled for medals just a few metres behind him and his success led Central AC's men home for three-in-a-row in the team event.
Laura’s decision to race at Kirkcaldy – having been a loyal supporter of the 4K for the past half dozen years – had captured the attention of the athletics community in Scotland and the Rio Olympian took the advantage early on, then built a bigger gap the longer the race went on.
Kirkcaldy-raised Steph Pennycook (13.47) made the best of giving chase to make sure she took a silver medal in the colours of team champions Edinburgh Uni Hare and Hound, while Central AC’s Morag MacLarty, another athlete who has made a huge contribution to these events over the years, was third in 13.50.
It was also another hugely encouraging day for the sport in Scotland. Numbers are up for these events and as just one example there were 411 finishers in the Senior Men's 4K race - with that figure being 227 in 2014.
‘I really enjoyed being out there racing again and loved the support around the course,’ said Laura, who raced in the colour of Glasgow Uni and will soon turn her attention towards the World Indoors in Birmingham.
‘Did I stretch the lead more on the second lap? I really couldn’t tell you – I was just trying to focus on my own run. I’ve only missed one training run all winter so far (despite Uni placements and course work in her final year.
‘I’m getting everything I want to in and it’s been going really well. I keep plugging away. I felt in good shape here.
‘It’s nice to win it again. And now the indoor season is the next big focus. Because I want to perform well there.’
Just behind the top three, Anna Macfadyen took fourth place to win the U20 gold medal and put a marker down for the Euro Cross trials in Liverpool. U20 athlete Erin Wallace had a good run, too, only hours after winning the Young Sportswoman of the Year Award from Scottish Women in Sport.
VP-Glasgow took the silver team medals, with Josephine Moultrie in sixth place, and host club Fife AC savoured bronze medals for their women’s team.
Boyek helped Scotland to a Stewart Cup 4 x 1K Relay win at the Great Edinburgh XC early in 2016 but the 1500m runner has had injury problems in the interim.
‘It was good to win that and I knew reading the preview that there were some good names there and strong competition,’ said Cameron.
‘I just managed to get a bit of lead and then pushed it on when I could. I wasn’t sure what was going on behind me.
‘After the injuries that I’ve had, I am determined just to put in a solid winter and that means some cross country – certainly over this kind of distance. The 4K was probably ideal and I will be doing indoors as well.
‘I believe there is a 4 x 1500m race at the Euro Cross and I think GB are planning to send a team to that so hopefully winning here helps me stake a selection claim for that.’
Three athletes were on 12.05 behind Boyek, with Lachlan Oates of Shettleston taking the silver and Sol Sweeney of Glasgow Uni the bronze medal and the U20 gold. Aberdeen’s Michael Ferguson was fourth.
Central took the men's team title with Cambuslang Harriers in silvers and Inverclyde AC bronze.
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 here