Inverness athlete Mhairi Maclennan will be out to prove a point to Scotland’s selectors when she competes in the Leeds Abbey Dash 10km on Sunday.
A home countries international competition is being held as part of the event but the Inverness athlete hasn’t been included in the four-strong national women’s team.
Maclennan, who is studying for a masters degree in Spanish Literature at Edinburgh University, has been in outstanding form recently and last weekend posted the second quickest time of the day when leading her student team to the Scottish cross country relay senior women’s title.
She said: “I’m giving this weekend’s Scottish universities cross country championships a miss as I prefer to run in Leeds.
“I don’t know what the selection procedure was for the Scotland team but I’m not in it. I suppose that gives me added motivation and I’ll be going out to run my best. I quite like being an underdog.
“I am very happy with the way things are going at the moment. Last year I had a lot of injury problems but I got a good block of training done over the summer and I’m running well so hopefully I can stay healthy and free from injury from now on.
“I think 10km is my distance and if conditions are favourable at the weekend I would like to run a personal best time. The fastest I’ve done until now is 34min 39secs which I set in a track race in Spain in 2016.”
While Maclennan hopes to perform well this weekend, she has loftier ambitions for later in the month when she’ll bid for a place on the Great Britain under-23 team for December’s European cross country championships.
She said: “That’s my main target and I’ll be doing the trial race at Liverpool on November 25. I competed in an international cross country race in Dublin earlier this month where I finished second and beat some of the girls I’ll be up against.
“I just hope to put in a performance which reflects the hard work I’ve put in and then we’ll have to see if that is good enough to get me in the team.”
Jenny Bannerman (Inverness Harriers) is to represent the Scotland women’s team in the Leeds race.
The 30 year-old, who was bronze medallist in the Scottish 10km championships at Stirling in September, went on to set a personal best time of 35:14 when winning the River Ness 10km in her home city later that month.
She said: “I am looking forward to it. This will be my fourth Scotland appearance but the first one in the UK. I ran a 10 mile race in Dublin and have twice done a half marathon in Denmark.
“I’m aiming to get as close to my best time as possible and if I was to achieve a personal best I would be delighted. But you can never be sure as it often depends on the weather conditions.”
Bannerman is joined in the side by Metro Aberdeen’s Fiona Brian,who set a personal best time in last month’s Chicago marathon, and Scottish masters 5,000m champion Nicola Gauld (Aberdeen AAC).
Kenny Wilson earns his first Scotland appearance when he competes in the men’s race.
The Moray Road Runners club member, who won the inaugural Great Aberdeen Run 10km in August, will be aiming to improve on his best of 30:25 set when finishing third in September’s River Ness 10km.
