‘These things happen!’: Eilish McColgan brushes off Great Scottish Run blunder
The course was found to be 150 metres short, which led to her European and British 10k records being invalidated
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Your support makes all the difference.Eilish McColgan has brushed off a blunder by Great Scottish Run organisers which invalidated her European and British 10k records.
The organisers of the race in Glasgow on October 2 have apologised after it was found that the course was 150 metres short.
McColgan won the race in 30 minutes and 18 seconds to cap a memorable season but she already held both European and British records of a second slower from a road race in Manchester in May this year.
The Dundee athlete wrote on Twitter: “Obviously disappointed with this news, but these things happen! Thankfully my British and European Record still stands from the Great Manchester 10K. So it’s all good!”
McColgan, who won four major track medals at the Commonwealth Games and European Championships this year, suspected the course was short.
“My gut feeling was that it was short,” she told BBC Scotland. “I crossed the line and said straight away to my partner ‘I think that is out by about 15 or 20 seconds’.
“It’s not a huge amount, but I am used to running 10ks – I know pace and I know distance, and that to me did not feel like a 30:18. It did not feel that pace. So it didn’t come as a huge surprise to me.”
The race organiser, The Great Run Company, has been in touch with McColgan directly to explain and apologise.
Chief executive Paul Foster said: “The shortfall in the distance was wholly due to human error. An area of the course was not laid out in line with the previously agreed plans.
“This error had a marginal knock-on to the half marathon but it was within tolerance and the course on the day was valid.
“We’re extremely disappointed that this happened at the 10K, on what was an incredibly positive return to the city for the Great Scottish Run following the pandemic. We will be reviewing our internal processes to ensure we cannot make this mistake again.
“We know we’ve let our customers down on this occasion. There are no excuses for this happening and we’re very sorry.”
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