LEADING British long distance triathlete Scott Neyedli defeated a field of 203 runners to win yesterday’s 23rd Stonehaven half marathon.
The Metro Aberdeen club member took the lead with three miles to go and went on to finish 300m ahead of his nearest challenger in a time of 1hr 16min 8sec.
Neyedli, who is training towards the defence of his Ironman UK triathlon title later this summer, warmed up for the race by cycling from his Aberdeen home. He then set off for a further couple of hours of cycle training after his victory.
He said: “I was pleased with the result. I started too fast then struggled a bit in the middle stages but I came through strongly to get the win.”
Stonehaven’s Wilson Moir produced an impressive sprint to catch John Matheson (Metro Aberdeen) over the final 50m to take the runners-up position by one second in 1:16:57.
Bill Adams (Metro Aber-deen), Britain’s fastest over-60-year-old half marathon runner, won his age division prize when finishing ninth overall in 1:23:24.
Marion Wood (Arbroath Footers) won the women’s prize for the fourth year in a row, recording her fastest Stonehaven time of 1:25:23.
Aberdeen’s Carolyn McLeod recorded 1:26:00 to finish 10secs ahead of Glasgow’s Rebecca Johnson in the race for second position.
Alasdair Thomas, from Midmar, won the Corrieyairack Challenge duathlon race between Fort Augustus and Kincraig on Saturday.
The Aberdeenshire athlete, who was runner-up last year and has also finished third and seventh on previous occasions, completed the 17-mile mountain run and 26-mile road cycle in a combined time of 3hr 32min 25sec.
Thomas finished more than 10mins clear of 2007 Highland Cross biathlon winner Paul Rodden (Highland Hill Runners) who held off Matt Williamson (Bellahouston) in the race for second position.
Edinburgh’s Kim Thread-gall won the women’s race in 4:18:06 with Cathy Sinclair (Fife AC) second in 4:33:53 and Carole Fortune (Gala) third in 4:35:12.
Norman Gillan (Squadra Porcini) won the accompanying 43-mile mountain bike race in 3:11:32. It was his fourth win in the competition.
Team-mate Ian Nimmo was 71secs behind when finishing runner-up for the second year in a row while another Squadra Porcini member, Prasad Prasad, took third position in 3:15:23.
East Fife’s Mary-Rose Cross won the women’s prize from Tina Gibson and Alice Bailey.
Haddington’s Brian Marshall sliced two secs from the course record when winning the men’s title in the annual David Shepherd Memorial Glamaig hill race at Sliga-chan, Syke, on Saturday.
The Scottish international completed the course in 44min 39sec to finish well clear of Alec Keith (Hunters Bog Trotters) and Kenny Riddle (Highland Hill Runners).
Marshall’s time improved the previous record set by Mark Rigby (Westerlands) 11 years ago.
Aberdeen’s Lois Noble (Cosmic Hillbashers) won the women’s race from Amanda Blackhall (Lochaber AC).
DAN Whitehead (Cosmic Hillbashers) got the better of Adrian Davis (Carnethy) and Des Crowe (Dundee Hawkhill) to win the White Tops hill race near Dundee.
Helen McKevitt won the women’s prize from Forfar’s Angela Phillip and Liz Nicoll.