Shettleston Storms to Victory at Pentland Skyline

14 OCT2009

Shettleston's Oleg Chepelin and Fiona Maxwell blew away the field at the Pentland Skyline to win in, given the windy conditions, staggeringly fast times of 2:25:56 and 3:02:00.

The unmarked 26k race started at the Midlothian Ski Centre, Hillend, Edinburgh and climbed up some steep inclines, through long grass, deep heather and the occasional gravel path to a total height of 1890 metres. Cheplin's time was just 76 seconds outwith Andy Kitchen's record of 2:24:40, set in 1994. Hunter Bog Trotters Murray Strain (MS) and Dan Gay (MS) earned second and third places with times of 2:32:04 and 2:34:39 respectively. Carnethy's Stewart Whitlie (MV40) finished fourth and claimed first vet in a time of 2:35:37.

It was vets to the fore of the women's race as Shettleston's Fiona Maxwell (FV40) was followed over the finishing line by Carnethey's Jacqui Higginbottom (FV40) in 3:18:06. In the senior class, HBT's Eilidh Wardlaw and Ochil's Alayne Finlay had a closely contested race with the HBT athlete finishing in 3:21:48, 37 seconds ahead of her Ochil rival.

A total of 170 brave runners completed the arduous course, with unattached pair David Caira (M40) and Tim Appleton (M40) closing the race together in 5:16:16.