Mhairi Maclennan had barely taken time to scrape the mud from the soles of her spikes after winning her first Scottish cross-country title before she was chatting excitedly about her next big athletics target.
The Inverness runner, who is a postgraduate Spanish literature student at Edinburgh University, brought the curtain down on a stellar winter season by easing her way clear of a field of 271 rivals over a testing 10km course around Falkirk’s Callendar Park on Saturday to be crowned Scottish women’s champion.
Maclennan was de-lighted with her success, which came a little more than two months after she marked her Great Britain debut by finishing ninth in the under-23 women’s race at the European championships in Slovakia where she helped her side win team gold medals.
That experience has whetted her appetite for more international competition which she hopes might come her way this summer.
She said: “I would really like to be selected to run for Great Britain in the European Cup 10,000m track race at Highgate in London on May 19. I’ve been told selection will be based on performances during the cross-country season and the selection date is April 30.
“One of the eligibility criteria is to have finished in the top 10 at the Euro-pean under-23 cross-country championships and I have done that, so we’ll see.”
A team of up to six athletes can be picked for the event which is being held in this country for the first time. It will be combined with the British champion-ships.
Maclennan added: “Even if I’m not selected I plan to race there as the Highgate meeting is always a very high standard.”
The Inverness athlete is now going to recharge her batteries before starting the build-up towards the track season, with a warm-weather training break in Vilamoura in Portugal.
Caithness man Andy Douglas is another top north athlete planning to travel overseas to prepare for the summer season.
The North Highland Harriers club member finished third in the senior men’s race at the Scottish cross-country championships and is now setting his sights on this year’s mountain-running events.
Douglas has been a regular member of the Great Britain team at the world and European championships and is keen to be involved again in 2018.
He said: “I’m going to Boulder in Colorado for three weeks in May to get some altitude training done. Former world marathon record holder Steve Jones is based there and I hope to be able to train with his group.
“That will set me up for the European mountain running team trials back here in June.”