This morning’s Babcock Shettleston 10K on Glasgow Green hosted the Lindsay’s Scottish 10K Championships under beautiful blue skies in perfect conditions. Almost 740 runners entered for the fast, flat, two lap traffic free course. Defending champion and Babcock Series record holder, Omer Ahmed with 29:06 from last year had made the long journey from Birmingham and he was met by a stellar field which included the 2025 runner-up, Logan Rees from Fife and a total of twenty sub 30 minute runners. Ahmed and Rees bided their time for the first lap to 5K, sitting in a group of eight which included Aberdeen’s Max Abernethy and Sean Chalmers, the host club’s Jamie Burns, Central’s Aidan Thompson and John Bell of Inverclyde. As the second lap began Jamie Burns took a stint at the front and the group was down to seven and then five. Once Ahmed and Rees were side by side applying unrelenting pressure, five became four. With around 2K to go Ahmed eventually broke free and the 28:20 man fought hard for a 25 metre gap but Rees still wasn’t beaten as he threw everything at it in the final kilometre but Ahmed raised his game still further to squeeze home in 29:22, a single second ahead of Rees in second who claimed the Scottish title for the first time and a £200 bonus from Shettleston Harriers.
Max Abernethy held his form well for third in 29:26, followed closely by Jamie Burns on 29:29 and Sean Chalmers on 29:35. In all seven men broke 30 minutes for 10K, a great demonstration of the strength and depth in Scottish distance running at the moment.
Meanwhile the ladies weren’t to be out done and put on an equally thrilling race. Recently crowned Scottish 5K champion, StefanieTucker from Cambuslang Harriers led for the first 3K but Fife’s Annabel Simpson who had flown down especially from her new base on Orkney to contest the title and Cambuslang’s Stephanie Tucker steadily reeled Walker in. At 5K it was Simpson and Tucker together and only in the final two kilometres did Simpson’s superior endurance begin to tell, having trained all winter in the physical hardships of Orkney. At the finish only four seconds separated the pair, with Simpson coming home to take the title in a nifty 33:36 for someone who claimed not to be race sharp. Tucker took the silver in 33:40 and Walker rallied well for bronze on 33:53.
Aberdeen ran out men’s team champions by a single point from Central and Shettleston. Whilst in the women’s race host club Shettleston prevailed comfortably from Garscube and Inverclyde.
In the age group events Oscar Coetzee continued in his dominance of the Over 40 category in 33:03, the Over 50 men’s title went to Eoin Coull from Highland Hill Runners in 34:09 and top Over 60 was ever consistent Chris Upson from Cambuslang in 36:32. First Under twenty was Glen Griffiths of Glasgow University Hare and Hounds in an impressive 31:17.
Sandy McDougall of Dundee Hawkhill was dominant in the Over 40 women in 37:11, Julie Menzies of PH Running Club took the Over 50 title in 40:43 and multiple national record-breaker, Fiona Matheson from Falkirk took the over 60 title in an age defying 39:37. First Under 20 was Lucy Gibb of Dunfermline in 42:55.
No fewer than 51 men and 12 women finished from the sponsor’s Team Clyde, made up of runners from Babcock, Royal Navy and the Ministry of Defence. Connor Higgins won the men’s event in 33:28 and Daisy Higgins won the women’s race in 41:09.
The series now moves on to Dumbarton on Thursday May 21st at 7.30pm and the series concludes at Helensburgh on May 28th in Helensburgh.
Full results are available at protay.co.uk
Photography by Daren Borzynski – click here for race day photos.