Sean Chalmers won’t be able to bask in the glory of winning the Inverness half marathon for too long as his next major assignment is looming large on the horizon.
The Aberdeen PE teacher, who represents Inverness Harriers, became the first athlete from the club to win the men’s title in the 37-year history of the race when he finished ahead of a field of 2,116 runners.
But it was a victory earned the hard way as he only managed to shake off the dogged challenge from Shettleston’s Peter Avent over the final 300m on the Queen’s Park athletics track.
An elated Chalmers stopped the clock at 1hr 6min 16secs with his rival just three seconds behind while Cambuslang’s Fraser Stewart was a further 19secs adrift in third position.
There’s little time for the champion to dwell on his success as he is due to compete for Scotland in another half marathon in Cardiff on March 27.
And if recent results are anything to go by the Welsh race will represent a major step up in class as the course record, set by Kenya’s Leonard Langat in 2019, is a sizzling 59min 19secs.
Chalmers said: “I hope to be faster at Cardiff. There should be a good group going at a quicker pace and I’ll aim to get into that.”
The Aberdeen-based athlete has bounced back from a disappointing marathon debut in Seville just three weeks before his Inverness success.
Stomach pains forced him to curtail his pace drastically and he ended up completing the course in 2:25:05 – well below expectations.
He is keeping his fingers crossed the problem doesn’t emerge again as it also threatened to wreck his Inverness performance.
He said: “At six miles I began to get the same tightness in my stomach that affected me at the Seville marathon and I thought I might have to call it a day. But I so much wanted to be the first Inverness Harriers member to win the title and that kept me going.
“However, I need to get it checked out as it obviously hasn’t completely gone away.”
Many people may have been expecting Metro Aberdeen’s Claire Bruce to place higher than she did in the women’s division of the Inverness race.
The Fraserburgh half marathon champion finished seventh in 1:22:08, which is well outside her best of 1:18:27.
But the north-east athlete was more than happy with the outcome given she had completed a brisk 10-mile run immediately before the start of the race.
It’s all part of her preparations for the Manchester marathon on April 3 where she wants to run a fast time.
She said: “I planned to do that as I wanted to run the half marathon at close to my hoped for marathon pace and not any faster. It was tough, but I’m pleased with the way it went.”
“Hopefully now I can rest up a bit. I’m aiming to improve on my best marathon time of 2:53:30 which I set at Manchester last year.”
Bruce also led Metro Aberdeen to second position behind Highland Hill Runners in the Inverness team competition. Hazel Wyness 23rd, 1:31:31, and Eilidh Prise 28th, 1:33:08, were the other scorers.
Aberdeen AAC finished third thanks to the efforts of Jen Donaldson, (ninth, 1:23:39), Zoe Bates, (15th, 1:26:52), and Katie Watson (76th, 1:42:03).
There were no team prizes for north east club’s in the men’s competition.
Metro Aberdeen finished fifth with Martin Mueller (22nd, 1:11:58), Ross Macdonald (32nd, 1:13:59) and Jordan Cruickshank (33rd, 1:14:02) the scorers.
Rob Wynne (Garioch Road Runners) produced a superb performance to win the men’s 60-69 title in 1:25:31.
Luke leads from the front
Aberdeen University’s Luke Nelson was happy with his winning performance in the 5k which accompanied the Inverness half marathon.
The second year medical student recorded a time of 17min 15secs to lead home a field of 1,000 runners.
He said: “I’m happy with that as it’s the second fastest time I’ve run and it’s just 20secs outside my best.
“It’s the first time I’ve run here and I really enjoyed it. It was windy which made it tough in places as I was out on my own, but the course was very flat which is always good. And I loved finishing on the track, that was cool.”
“I ran my fastest 5k, 16:55, just the previous week in the Scottish universities road relay championships in Glasgow.
“We had two men’s and women’s teams taking part and although we didn’t feature among the medals, everyone ran really well.”
