Step by step, stride for stride, Callum Hawkins tracked Moses Kipsiro for much of yesterday’s Bank of Scotland Great Scottish Run without skipping a beat, the 23-year-old from Paisley betraying no sign of nerves or intimidation as he ran shoulder to shoulder with the man who claimed Commonwealth Games marathon gold on these same Glasgow streets barely 14 months ago.
On the elongated run for home, when reserves of energy and resilience were probed to the full, it was the Ugandan who had most left to expend, pulling away over the closing three miles of the half-marathon course to win in a time of one hour, two minutes and 18 seconds to better his second place from 2014.
Yet it was Hawkins who claimed the attention and the plaudits, just 21 days before he attempts his first full marathon in Frankfurt, a journey of 26-and-a-bit miles which, he hopes, will secure his ticket to the Olympic Games. If this was a mock examination, he passed with honours. But the true test, the Great Britain internationalist concedes, still lies ahead.
“I pretty much decided I’d go for it,” he said. “I had to think carefully about what I’d do with the marathon so close but my last competition was the Great North Run so I felt I had the legs to try to stay with them as long as possible and it went well. It gives me a lot of confidence. But I’ve got to be careful. Because doing a half-marathon’s going to be very different to the full one. You’ve seen people not do so well making that leap up. So I’ve still got to keep grinding.”
He finished in 1:02:42 after dropping Kenya’s world cross-country champion Japhet Korir, with his elder brother Derek six places behind. It was the third-quickest run ever by a Scot, just 14 seconds outside Allister Hutton’s national record. “He looked so good,” praised Kipsiro. “He’s tough. I know he’s going to be a good athlete.”
Kiplagat successfully defended her women's title in 1:08:21 with the two-time world champion accelerating clear before the 10-kilometres mark. The 36-year-old, who plans to target an elusive Olympic medal in Rio next summer, was scarcely troubled as she ended up 91 seconds ahead of fellow Kenyan Doris Changeiywo.
“It felt very quick from the start,” Kiplagat said. “I was exactly where I wanted to be after three kilometres. My strategy was to go out fast and I tried to keep that pace as much as possible. As soon as I settled into a rhythm and moved away, I just kept pushing myself.”
Changeiywo pulled out a flourish to relegate Gemma Steel into third with the Englishwoman forced to hold off a late attack from European 10000 metres gold medallist Jo Pavey, whose time of 1:09:58 was the quickest-ever by a British woman aged over 40.
“It was a good duel with Doris but I maybe went a little too early and she came back at me,” said Steel, who will defend her European cross-country title this winter. “It was neck and neck almost all the way but I thought we only had 50 metres left when it was more like 800. But I’m pleased with how it went. I had to hold off Jo who was coming at me. I was lucky to hold her off.”
Beth Potter, still working her way back from a summer disrupted by injury and illness, was the leading Scot in seventh.
Simon Lawson went one better than his recent effort at the Great North Run by winning the men’s wheelchair race while Sammi Kinghorn warmed up for her four-pronged tilt at this month’s IPC World Championships in Doha by landing the women’s title for the second time in 28:44.
“It’s not an easy course because there are so many ups and downs,” said the Scot, who was almost five minutes ahead of 2014 champion Jade Jones. “So it’s good I managed to get out and go fast considering I’m trying to peak for a 100 metres at the moment. But this is good training because that was a tough race.”
Falkirk Victoria’s Ben Stevenson and Inverness Harriers Jenny Bannerman won the adjoining men’s and women’s 10Ks.
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