A NEW national half marathon record has been deemed invalid after checks showed last year's Great Scottish Run was almost 150 metres short.
Human error has been blamed for a "miscalculation" of last year's event route, which will come as a blow to Callum Hawkins and Betsy Saina who won the elite races as well as other runners who recorded a personal best.
Checks have revealed that the route was 149.7 metres short of the full 13.1 miles.
Hawkins held off the challenge of the defending champion, Moses Kipsiro of Uganda, clocking a time of of 60 minutes 22 seconds.
The event organisers said they had apologised to both elite runners for the error and to "the city of Glasgow."
A small section of the prescribed route was not followed correctly in Bellahouston Park which accounted for approximately 50 metres of the shortfall.
The remainder of the shortfall was as a result of the difference between measuring on closed roads compared to a measure on open roads.
The organisers of the eventsaid they have introduced several extra check steps to ensure that the error will not happen again.
Andy Mitchelmore, Race Director of the Great Scottish Run, said: “Great Run take responsibility for the miscalculation and we apologise unreservedly to the runners and to the City of Glasgow.
"This was an isolated incident.
""In the 30 years since the company was formed, more than four million people have participated in hundreds of our running events and the distances, which are measured by qualified independent parties, have been correct.”
A spokesman for The Great Run Company, said: "The miscalculation of the distance was down to human error and caused by two factors.
"A small section of the prescribed route was not followed correctly in Bellahouston Park which accounted for approximately 50 metres of the shortfall.
"The remainder of the shortfall was as a result of the difference between measuring on closed roads compared to a measure on unclosed roads - which was the methodology used in August as a result of notification of essential utilities works affecting the course.
"This therefore invalidates the Scottish half marathon record that was previously believed to have been set by Callum Hawkins and the personal best times that were recorded by a number of runners on the day.
"Naturally we are extremely disappointed that these errors have been made and we have apologised to Callum, who fully deserved his place in the record books after his fine run.
"We have also apologised to Betsy Saina, the winner of the women’s elite race."
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