Highland athlete Andy Douglas led a Great Britain select side to fifth position in the Trofeo Vanoni mountain running relay at Morbegno in Lombardy.
Douglas, an Edinburgh-based member of North Highland Harriers, ran the opening 7.2k leg in 30:41. That would turn out to be the seventh-quickest individual lap time of the day.
His team-mates Zak Hanna (30:42) and Ben Mounsey (34:12), a late call-up, gave the GB side a total time of 1:35:35 behind France who won in 1:30:42.
Douglas, the 2019 World Cup mountain-running champion, said: “It went pretty much how I expected. I struggled on the climb, but made up some ground on the descent.
“Ben jumped in at the last minute as Ross Gollan wasn’t able to come, so he did us a big favour when he wasn’t really prepped for it. In the end, he only dropped us one place.
“That’s me finished now in terms of racing for 2020, so I’ll take a break and then get back into winter training in the hope that we might see some cross-country races popping up in the first few months of next year.
Meanwhile, the Aberdeen Mo Running event, along with similar races in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth, scheduled for next month, has been cancelled because of continuing concerns over the spread of coronavirus.
Entrants can still take part virtually by running over a course of their choice any time from November 1-30 and submitting their times to organisers.
