The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
MacLean eager to take Wales chance
Athletics: Team medal strong prospect in Cardiff
Stornoway’s Connor MacLean is looking forward to representing the Scotland under-23 team in this weekend’s Celtic international cross country meeting at Cardiff and is keen to make up for the disappointment of dropping out of the national inter-district championship race at Holyrood park earlier this month.
The Western Isles athlete is joined in the Scotland side by Aberdeen AAC’s Michael Ferguson, Fife AC’s Logan Rees and Central AC’s Jamie Crowe.
MacLean is excited about his team’s chances and fully expects them to be in the frame for a win.
He said: “It should be another great experience and we have a good shout of winning the team competition as we have a strong squad.
“Everyone has been running well so it’s got to be possible that we can do it.
“It will be tricky though, because the race is combined with a British cross challenge cross country series match, so the under-23 Celtic teams will be running in the senior race and there will be a big field.
“It will be difficult to pick out who is in our part of the race, which is not so good as I prefer to know where I am relative to the others at any time.”
Maclean, who won the Scottish under-20s 4km title in November is not concerned by his failure to have finished the inter-district race in Edinburgh, and feels ready to perform well in Wales.
He said: “I don’t know what happened to me at Edinburgh in the inter-district race. I had a bit of a headache and just didn’t feel well. But I have to move on from these things, keep positive and look ahead to the next race.
“My training has been going well and I’m ready for Cardiff.”
Inverness athlete Mhairi Maclennan hopes her injury worries have finally been laid to rest when she
Gbegins a hectic spell of racing by representing the Scotland under-23 women’s team in the Celtic international cross country meeting at Cardiff on Sunday. The University of Edinburgh student, who was fourth in the Scottish inter-district championships at Holyrood a couple of weeks ago, is looking forward to the race and another international appearance in next month’s Armagh 3km road race.
She said: “It has been a rocky season. I have been plagued by injuries, but everything seems fine now. I had a good block of training over Christmas, including five days in Spain, and I was delighted with my run at Holyrood. I’m planning to do quite a lot of races over the next few weeks as I seem to thrive on competing. After Cardiff I’m going to do the English Northern championships then I’ll have Armagh followed by the Scottish national championships at Falkirk.
“It’s going to be busy, but I enjoy that and hopefully I’ll peak for the nationals.”
“Everyone has been running well so it’s got to be possible we can do it”