AN investigation has found that the 10k course at this year’s Great Scottish Run was 150 metres short - invalidating two records set by Scottish runner Eilish McColgan.
The findings came after organisers of the Glasgow event were made aware of a discrepancy with the 10k course.
Paul Foster, Chief Executive of The Great Run Company, confirmed via a statement that the shortfall in distance “was wholly due to human error”, with an area of the course not laid out in line with previously agreed plans.
While the error had “a marginal knock on” to the half marathon, the course on the day was valid as it was “within tolerance”, he added.
However, he confirmed that the error invalidates Scottish middle and long-distance runner Eilish McColgan’s European and British 10k records that were believed to have been set on the day.
The 31-year-old crossed the finish line at Glasgow Green in 30 minutes and 18 seconds - shaving one second off her previous record.
Obviously disappointed with this news, but these things happen! Thankfully my British and European Record still stands from the Great Manchester 10K. So it's all good! 😊 https://t.co/KUmOjORD4O
— Eilish McColgan (@EilishMccolgan) October 19, 2022
Organisers have been in touch with the 2022 Commonwealth Games 10,000 metres champion to offer their apologies.
A statement from Paul Foster read: “We will be reviewing our internal processes to ensure we cannot make this mistake again.
“We know we’ve let our customers down on this occasion. There are no excuses for this happening and we’re very sorry. We’ll be in touch with everyone who took part in the 10K offering a 10% discount on entry into the 2023 event.”
The event, which attracted some 20,000 runners doing a 10k and a half-marathon, was the first Great Scottish Run to take place in three years.
Previous races in 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel