Cambuslang Harriers runners have enjoyed good results while competing on road, track and hill across Europe and beyond recently.
Athletes have been in action on home soil as well as England, Wales, Czech Republic and USA and there are some impressive results to show for their efforts.
Moira Stewart (inset, right) set a 10,000m Championship best to win the ladies’ Czech Republic title in 32.51.74.
She broke clear at 2k and ran solo in the windy conditions for the remaining 8k to finish 50 seconds ahead of her nearest rival.
Over in America, Gavin Smith set a PB of 1.54.19 for 800m, and followed it up a week later with back-to-back performances of 3.51.13 and 15.01.23 for 1500m and 5000m.
The main road focus in Scotland was the Scottish SRI Chinmoy 5k Road Championship, held on a flat but blustery course at Silverknowes in Edinburgh.
This year, for health and safety reasons, the men set off five minutes before the women. Harriers fielded 21 male and five female competitors, while Andrew Carey and Keir Crawford represented Glasgow University.
Mike Christoforou (14.35) finished ninth out of 451, and Cambuslang were fifth team, with support from Kevan Harvey (15.03) and fourth-placed M50 Gordon Robertson (15.39). Carey lowered his PB by 40 seconds to 15.30.
While unable to earn any championship awards, under-15 and 17 athletes were allowed to participate. Lewis Roddis and Jonathan Dow improved their PBs by a few seconds, with 16.06 and 17.08, respectively.
M35 Colin Reilly was nine seconds behind Lewis, and under-20 Luke Biggart, M40 Stuart McGeachy and Ian Hodge were comfortably under the 17-minutes mark.
With a time of 17 minutes exactly, M20 Keir Crawford took three minutes and 39 seconds off his 2020 best time. Mark Gallacher, in 17.16, snatched the M50 silver medal on the line.
Under-17 athlete Millie Nicholl finished second in her age group, while Dave Thom, who had raced the Helensburgh 10k the evening before, finished fifth M60 in 19.07.
In England, Owen Walpole (34.28) and Craig Jardine (32.37) finished third in 10k races in Exeter and Oxford, with the latter also recording a 5k PB of 15.54 at Battersea.
Chris Upson was the leading M50 in the Helensburgh 10k with 36.39, with Justin Carter 18 seconds behind, and Dave Thom fourth M60 in 40.07.
Meanwhile, Harriers took the male and female honours at Strathclyde Park Parkrun, thanks to U20 Aaron Grew (16.13) and Lesley Blackwood (18.43).
There were other Parkrun podium places for Justin Carter, Mark King, Richard Cooper, Peter Ogden, Paula McCabe and Iain McDonald.
Two days after the Scottish 5k, Nathalie Brohan finished first lady and 14th overall in the Strathaven Half-Marathon in 1.33.33. Lewis Roddis, now a junior on the track, set a five-seconds PB of 2.05.4 at Grangemouth.
Ryan Thomson, who has recently returned from altitude training in Flagstaff, Arizona, has been selected to represent Scotland in the 3000m event at the Loughborough International, having set a PB of 8.04.29 for the distance back in February.
Kieran Cooper finished first west runner in 27th place, having been selected to represent the West District in the Inter-Counties Mountain event at Llanberis in Wales, while Alasdair Campbell finished sixth in the Clachnaben Hill Race, the opening event of the 2022 Scottish Hill Running Championship.
Finally, Gerron Stewart – Moira’s younger brother – recorded a good victory in an off-road 10k race in Prague.
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