Scots runners prepare for Kenyan trip heights

Four Scottish endurance athletes head for Kenya after this weekend with London 2012 looming on the horizon.

Specialised altitude training in Africa will be perfect for the likes of Olympic hopeful Steph Twell, while Freya Murray will use this opportunity as preparation for her first marathon in London this spring. Scottish cross country champion Derek Hawkins and Beth Potter are the other two Scots who will make the month-long trip.

UK Athletics funded the trip for Great Britain international Twell, but the other three are supported by scottishathletics. The quartet will be in Kenya from 10 January to 9 February and at certain stages they could even be training with the likes of Mo Farah and Paula Radcliffe.

It will be vital training and experience for all concerned and the bad news for the rest of the field at the Scottish National Cross Country Championships is that Hawkins and Murray will be back in Britain in time to defend their titles at Falkirk in February.

Kilbarchan athlete Hawkins, 22, had to persuade his lecturers at Glasgow University that the chance was too good to miss. “We head to London on 9 January and then fly to Kenya the following day,” he said. “It is at altitude and it is my first experience of that.”