ORKNEY'S ultra-distance runner William Sichel is on course to break the oldest record in Scottish athletics.
The 52-year-old Sanday athlete has completed 123 miles in the first 29 hours of the Athens seven-day international race which ends on Friday.
Sichel's target is the Scottish six-day record of 567.3 miles set by Edinburgh's George Cameron 127 years ago in New York, and if the Orcadian can maintain his current pace he has every chance of reaching his ambitious goal.
Robbie Simpson (Deeside Runners), 17, was the leading junior in the opening race of this season's British fell running championship series at Slieve Bearnagh, Northern Ireland on Saturday.
The Banchory athlete finished top Scot, 15th overall, from a field of 228.
English international Rob Hope (Pudsey and Bramley AC) won by completing the tough 4.5-mile route which includes 2,700ft of climbing, in 40min 35sec, breaking his own two-year-old course record by 41sec. Simpson was timed at 44:38 when finishing almost five minutes ahead of his closest rival in the under-20 age group.
Scottish international Colin Donnelly (Lochaber AC) got the better of Inverness-based Graham Bee (Fife AC) to win the Knockfarrel hill race at Strathpeffer on Saturday.
Donnelly completed the six-mile course in 40min 9sec to win for the second time in three years while Bee was just five seconds behind.
Jaqui Higginbottom (Carnethy) clocked 50:08 to win the women's race, finishing one minute ahead of Roxy Bannerman (Highland Hill Runners).
Aberdeen's Suzanne Matonti helped Lothian Running Club win team silver medals in the Scottish road relay championships at Livingston on Saturday.
Matonti recorded 38:14 for the six-mile stage to support fine runs from Edel Mooney, Mhairi Inglis and Sarah Inglis to help her club take second position behind Kilbarchan AAC.
Shettleston Harriers, boosted by their four Eritrean representatives, brushed aside defending champion Central AC to win the men's race.
Hill running international Dan Whitehead (Cosmic Hillbashers) got the better of professional triathlete Scott Neyedli (Fleet Feet) to win the Aberdeenshire duathlon at Knockburn.
Whitehead completed the 1.8-mile run, 8.6-mile cycle and another 1.8-mile run in a combined time of 59min 43sec to finish 62sec ahead of Neyedli who had returned from a training camp in Australia a few days earlier.
Deeside Thistle's John Blunsdon was third in 63:01 while Jake Vellacott (Fleet Feet) was top veteran when finishing seventh in 66:56.
Chiin Hooi Tan (Fleet Feet) won the women's race in 73:36 with runner-up Christy Andres pipping Tracey Sahraie (Three Peaks) by 37sec to take the veteran title in 82:46.
Aberdeenshire woman Bella Bayliss dropped out of the Ironman South Africa triathlon at Nelson Mandela Bay, Port Elizabeth yesterday.
The defending champion was lying in third position after the 2.4-mile swim and 112-mile cycling stages and looked well-placed going into her strongest event, the marathon.
But one hour into the 26-mile run, and with over seven hours of competition behind her, Bella pulled off the course. She said: “I think I pushed too hard on the bike and when I got into the run the tank was empty."
Lucie Zelenkova (Czech Republic) went on to win in a new course record of 9hr 16min 32sec. Bella's husband, English international Stephen Bayliss, was fourth in the men's race in 8:47:26. Belgium's Marino Vanhoenacker broke the men's record when winning in 8:17:32.