Athletics: Thaw to play for as Murray seeks to make Capital run

Capital distance runner Freya Murray is confident she will be fit in time for the BUPA Great Edinburgh Cross Country in Holyrood Park on Saturday, January 8, provided there is a thaw soon and she can find some safe surfaces to train on.

"My foot is much better and I'd be gutted to miss Edinburgh," said the Edinburgh AC club member, who represented Scotland in both 5000 and 10,000 metres in the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Currently living in Newcastle where the early wintry weather was if anything even more severe than Edinburgh, Murray confesses she has found the last few weeks "frustrating", especially as she has been nursing tendonitis in the foot, an injury which ruled her out of this weekend's European Cross Country Championships in Albufeira, Portugal.

"It's been very difficult as all the pavements are treacherous and I don't want to take chances - it's okay where the snow has become compacted but there's nowhere really clear and I don't want to go on the treadmill, it's too monotonous!"

"Hopefully I'll be 100 per cent fit by the time of the Great Edinburgh Run and up to taking on Steph (Twell).

"Last year she went out and took on the best in the field and it showed me that there's no reason why we can't compete with anyone."

Murray's fellow Scot Twell, who won a bronze medal in the 1500m in Delhi and finished fourth in the 5000m with Murray seventh, was fourth in last year's BUPA Cross, equal to the highest finish by a European in the race, with Murray well up in eighth.

Both are keen to improve on their positions but much will depend on which and how many of the World's leading African runners will be attracted to Edinburgh by new race director Peter Riley.

"Beating any African opponent in Edinburgh is never going to be easy as past results show," said Riley. "Only Australia's former World champion Benita Willis (Johnson) has managed that."