Athletics: Capital man Turner jets off after Hoy half marathon win

Published on Monday 6 April 2009 10:45

CITY resident Robert Turner was a man in a hurry yesterday, winning the Chris Hoy Edinburgh Half Marathon, then quickly accepting his trophy from the Olympic cycling hero before rushing off to the airport to catch a holiday flight to Norway.

"I think that's the only race I've ever won apart from park runs," admitted the 36-year-old Harmeny AC athlete after breaking the tape at a sun-soaked Musselburgh Racecourse in 71mins 59secs. "I just set my own pace from the start (at Meadowbank Stadium) and there was nobody with me. I spent the whole race on my own.

"It was tough going after ten miles. The first bit went fairly quickly and I felt good, but then you turned straight into a headwind for the last three miles. My time was about 30 or 40 seconds better than my personal best even though I'm in the middle of marathon training (for Edinburgh next month and Berlin in September).

"I had already run 100 miles this week, so my legs are a bit tired."

Late entry John Charles of Belgrave Harriers was second, almost a minute behind Turner, with Stirling's David Lindsay back in third.

Ayr's Toni McIntosh justified her status as pre-race favourite by claiming yesterday's ladies' title.

The former Stirling University sports science student followed up her victory in last Sunday's Round the Houses 10km in Grangemouth with another dominant win in 77mins 15secs.

"I quite like being the underdog, but I saw in the paper that I was down as the favourite, so the pressure was on," she said.

"It was good up to ten miles, but then it turned into a bit of a nightmare. I tried to push on at the end, but the wind just kept pushing me back.

"I'm planning to do the Edinburgh Marathon next month, but at 13 miles I thought 'could I really do another 13?'"

Musselburgh's Niamh Devlin used her local knowledge in the battle for second place but was narrowly pipped by Glasgow's Collette Fagan.