THERE was a lament for absent friends in the British camp yesterday
after two low-key teams struggled into the minor places at the World
Half-Marathon championships at Belfort, France.
The British men could finish only sixteenth in a race dominated almost
inevitably by Kenya. Spain -- on $8000 a man -- finished an impressive
second and Italy third, ahead of the emerging Japanese and, even more
surprisingly, Brazilians.
How Britain could have used Paul Evans. Their first counter, Martin
McLoughlin, was forty-fourth.
But it was Liz McColgan's absence which was most remarked on,
particularly noted by the women's winner, current Olympic marathon
champion Valentina Yegorova. The 31-year-old Russian is due to clash
with the Scot in next month's Tokyo marathon, and on yesterday's
evidence, is preparing for a vigorous defence of her title in Atlanta.
Yegorova, like McColgan, plagued with injury -- also a hip problem --
recorded 69min 58sec on a course with its share of uphill features.
Yegorova will be bidding for a hat trick of wins in Tokyo, having
finished fourth when McColgan won there in 1992, and expressed surprise
at her UK rival's absence.
The British women, however, did somewhat better than the men,
finishing eighth, with Cath Mijovic (74-13), Angie Hulley (74-16), and
Scotland's Vikki McPherson (74-27) -- all better placed than McLoughlin.
Non-scoring Pitreavie veteran, Trudi Thomson, hacked 39 seconds from her
previous best with 75-28.
''When I saw the time of 34-24 at 10,000 metres, I felt brilliant, but
I got a bit carried away and was passed by Cath, and then Angie caught
me,'' said McPherson, who will now take three weeks off before preparing
for the WorldCross series. Details:
Men: 1, M Tanui 61min 45sec; 2, P Yego 61-46; 3, C Tangus (all Kenya)
61-50; 4, A Serrano (Spain) 61-56; 5, J Thugwane (South Africa) 62-28;
6, DA Dos Santos (Brazil) 62-32. British placings: 44, M McLoughlin
64-26; 51, D Taylor 64-47; 88, M Flint 66-48; 104, B Hussain 67-48; dnf
B Rushworth. Team: 1, Kenya 6; 2, Spain 34; 3, Italy 40; 16, Great
Britain 183.
Women: 1, V Yegorova (Russia) 69-58; 2, C Pomacu (Romania) 70-22; 3, A
Catuna (Romania) 70-28; 4, C De Reuck (South Africa) 70-34; 5, A
Zhilyayeva (Russia) 70-39; 6, E Fidatov (Romania) 70-39. British
placings: 34, C Mijovic 74-13; 35, A Hulley 74-16; 38, V McPherson
74-27; 48, T Thomson 75-48; 78, K Bailey 80-16. Team: 1, Romania 11; 2,
Russia 23; 3, Spain 32; 8, Britain 107.
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