Less than two months after finishing fourth in the marathon at the IAAF World Championships in London, Callum Hawkins will defend his title at the Bank of Scotland Great Scottish Run, a race with a five-star certification from European Athletics Running for All, in Glasgow on 1 October.
Hawkins shaved more than two minutes off his fastest ever time in last year’s race, crossing the finish-line in 60:24 but the course was later found to be short and his time could not be ratified as a Scottish record. However, he has since surpassed that mark on two occasions: 60:00 for victory in Marugame in February, followed by 60:08 to finish second in New York the following month.
Hawkins is coming off a hard run in the marathon at the World Championships where he just missed out on the medals but he is still confident of putting up a good defence of his title in Glasgow.
'I have been doing this event since 2013 and it is very close to my heart. The support from the home crowd is always great and I’m sure it will be no different on October 1. I’ve had a good year and I’m confident of putting in a good performance in the half marathon,' he said.
Hawkins will be joined on the start-line in Glasgow by teammate Andrew Butchart, a world and Olympic finalist over 5000m. Butchart will be making his debut at the distance. “I’m looking forward to racing against Callum on the day. It’ll be a case of seeing how long I can keep pace with him,” he said.
In the women’s race, former European 10,000m champion Jo Pavey will return to action after ruling herself out of selection contention for the World Championships.
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