Moray athlete Cameron Main made the Scottish distance-running community sit up and take notice with his outstanding record-breaking performance in the Podium 5km at Barrowfield, Lancashire earlier in the month.
Now the 21-year-old Stirling University student has set his sights firmly on representing Scotland at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games –but not in athletics.
He said: “I want to compete in the triathlon. I have been heavily involved in the sport since 2012 and I’ve been part of the Scottish Triathlon Performance Squad since 2015.
“Running has always been my favourite discipline ahead of swimming and cycling, although I enjoy all three. I love running, but triathlon is my main focus.”
Main’s talent as a runner certainly shone through with his performance in Lancashire where he finished sixth in a time of 13:53.
That is the joint third-fastest time run on the road by a Scot and the quickest by anyone from this country at under-23 level.
He said: “Although I’m focused on the triathlon, I’d also love to represent Scotland in a running event at some point, so maybe this performance will lead to an opportunity. If it does, I’d grasp it.
“I’ve never represented Scotland in athletics at any level, not even when I was at school. I always seemed to get injured, so I’d be proud to get the chance to make up for that.”
Main, a former pupil at Elgin Academy, is in his final year studying sports science and exercise, but plans to extend his stay in Stirling.
He said: “I’ll probably do a masters in sports psychology. That would allow me to continue training with the squad here in Stirling and get some funding support, as I’ve no other source of income or sponsorship.
“That would really help me prepare for the Commonwealth Games. I’ve been here since 2016 and I’ve really improved under the guidance of our coach, Andrew Woodroffe. He has helped me to become more consistent and that makes a big difference.
“I’ve also managed to stay free from injury, which was always a problem I had in the past.”
Main will not celebrate his 22nd birthday until next year and knows that his relative youth may be an advantage when it comes to bidding for Commonwealth selection.
He said: “I understand that the 2022 Commonwealth Games triathlon will be held over the sprint distance, which is a 750m swim, 20km cycle and 5k run.
“That will probably suit me as I’m still relatively young and maybe don’t quite have the endurance strength of the older guys in the longer races.
“But I’ve got good speed in my legs for the run now and I don’t think many of my rivals for a place on the team will be as fast over 5k.”
Couple both targeting Commonwealth success
Elgin’s Cameron Main will be joined by his girlfriend Sophia Green in bidding for places in the Scotland triathlon squad for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
The Moray duo are determined to pull out all the stops to achieve their goal and, if recent form is anything to go by, then few people would write off their chances.
While Main slashed 53 seconds from his previous best time when recording 13:53 at the Podium 5k in Lancashire, Green was doing an equally impressive demolition job on her own PB in the same race.
The 21-year-old from Elgin recorded 16:13 to finish 26 seconds behind Great Britain international Mhairi Maclennan (Inverness Harriers).
Main said: “She didn’t have an official time before that, although I paced her to a 17:23 run last year, so it’s a huge improvement on that. That’s very impressive.
“Not many British triathletes can run faster at under-23 level. She’s also a strong swimmer and cyclist, so she’s definitely aiming for Birmingham.”
Main and Green benefitted from training together in Elgin for four or five months during last year’s lockdown.
Main said: “I stayed at Sophia’s family home and we were able to motivate ourselves to train. She had a small pool built in the back garden and we were able to go in there with wetsuits. We also did turbo sessions on a bike in her garage.
“Lockdown wasn’t a problem as we got a lot of consistent training done. We had no lack of motivation.
“I feel we are running so well now because we haven’t been going all over the place doing competitions. We’ve had plenty of recovery time as well as hard training.”
Aberdeen sprint sensation Zoey Clark heads for World Relay Championships
Aberdeen AAC’s Zoey Clark has been named in the 16-strong Great Britain team for the 4x400m events at the World Athletics Relays in Chorzow next month.
Clark, will be reunited with Jessie Knight and Ama Pipi, who were also part of the silver medal-winning 4×400 quartet at the European Indoor Championships in February.
Also in the team is Olympic relay bronze medallist Emily Diamond, 2017 world silver medallist Laviai Nielsen and world indoor and European relay bronze medallist Amy Allcock as well as Yasmin Liverpool and Jess Turner.
Clark said: “(I’m) grateful to have another opportunity to wear the GB kit. Always love racing as part of the team.”
