North cross-country champion Ben Livesey (Forres Harriers) is aiming to beat his personal best time when he competes against 1,400 rivals in Sunday’s Inverness half marathon.
The Scotland international road runner’s fastest time of 67min 56sec was set when competing for Scotland in last year’s Warrington half marathon.
Livesey is in form having won last weekend’s Nairn 10km in a personal best 31:10 and is looking forward to attempting to regain the Inverness title he first won in 2006.
He said: “Hopefully, I can run at least 30sec faster than my Warrington time but it depends on who else is there.”
Livesey has been runner-up for the past three years, but 2009 winner Neil Renault (Maidstone and Medway) isn’t expected to defend his title.
Aberdeen runner Ben Hukins is in the starting line-up and Balmoral 10km champion Keith Hood (Corstorphine AC) is also participating in the countdown towards defending his Royal Deeside race title.
Melissa Whyte (Inverness Harriers), the Scottish masters over-45 age group cross-country champion, is among the favourites to win the women’s title despite this being only her second attempt at the distance.
Whyte’s rivals include Aberdeen AAC’s Pamela Tosh who is hoping to improve on her best time of 84:34 set when winning the Moray half marathon last September.
Former Commonwealth Games runner Graham Laing (Inverness Harriers), winner of the first Inverness half marathon in 1985, is trying to win the over-50 age group title for the fourth year in a row.
Caithness twins Emma and Oonagh Dunnett will compete against Britain’s best youngsters in this weekend’s UK inter-counties cross-country champion-ships in Birmingham.
Emma, 14, won the Celtic international under-17 race in Belfast but missed the Scottish championships because she was suffering from a cold.
Oonagh won the North District league title and helped Edinburgh AC win team gold when finishing seventh in the Scottish championships.
Both will compete in the under-15 race this weekend alongside Aberdeen AAC’s Eilidh Prise.
Scottish champion Rhona Auckland (Banchory Stonehaven AC) will compete in the under-17 girls’ race along with Scottish schools indoor 800m champion Ellie Buchan (Aberdeen AAC).
Aberdeen AAC’s Mark Haskett joins Scottish champion Ali Hay (Central AC) in the men’s race which doubles up as the Great Britain team trials for the world cross-country cham- pionships in Poland this month.