Kristian Jones and Jenny Bannerman take top prizes in Baxters River Ness 10km

Kristian Jones, winner of the Baxters Loch Ness 10K in a time of 0:29:51
Picture: Paul Campbell

Dundee-based Welsh athlete Kristian Jones was delighted to win the Baxters River Ness 10km despite still feeling the effects of competing in a gruelling mountain run the previous weekend and winning two orienteering races at Aviemore less than 24 hours before his Inverness outing.

The Swansea AC runner remained composed throughout the contest and showed few obvious signs of fatigue as sprinted through the finishing tape in 29min 51secs which is the third fastest winning time in the 13 year history of the 10km.

Fife AC’s Logan Rees was runner-up in 30:01 while Moray’s Kenny Wilson set a personal best 30:25 in third position.

Rees, who finished third in the previous weekend’s Ring of Steall 29km mountain race at Kinlochleven, was delighted with his performance and feels he is heading back to the form which earned him a Great Britain track vest as well as the Scottish 5,000m and 10,000m titles during the summer.

He said: “I am very happy to run such a fast time given what I’ve done over the past week.  I am from a hill running background, but the Ring of Steall race took me well out of my comfort zone. Last Monday and Tuesday I was broken so I took it easy. But I was at an orienteering event at Aviemore yesterday and won two short races. I tried to run within myself to keep something for today.

“It was a good race. Logan took it out and put in a couple of good digs and got things going. At 5km it was down to him, myself and Kenny. I decided to push on between 6 and 7km and got a little gap which I was able to maintain although the final mile was really hard.

“My best track time is 29:05 and my fastest on the road is 29:32 so I feel I am in shape to match these times when I am fresher and in a competitive race. I enjoyed it today. It’s a good course and the conditions were fine.

Jack Trevelyan (Highland Hill Runners) was first over-40 in 34:28, Kevin Cormack North Highland Harriers) took the over-50’s prize in 34:31, Brian Hughes (Glasgow South) led the way in the over-60’s in 38:27 and John MacPherson (Metro Aberdeen) was the leading over-70 in 50:12.

Jenny Bannerman, winner of the Baxters Loch Ness 10K in a time of 0:35:15
Picture: Paul Campbell

Jenny Bannerman of Inverness Harriers, took the women’s race by the scruff of the neck and gave local fans plenty to cheer by securing an impressive victory in 35:15. Her official time, however, based on chip-timing as opposed to gun- timing used for determining the prize winners,was one second quicker, which is the fastest she has run for the distance.

She said: “I am really pleased with that. It is a couple of years since I ran my best so I am delighted to finally get a slight improvement. This is, however, a favourable course and the weather conditions were great. I did feel it was quite tough in the early stages but after 3.5km it’s pretty much downhill all the way.

“When I realised Fanni Gyurko and Nicola Gauld weren’t running, it changed how I went about it. I am used to competing against them but I didn’t know the other girls so well so I just had to run my own race.

“I was in the lead the whole way but I never knew whether anyone was close behind. But it all worked out really well and I am very happy.”

Dani Nimmock (City of Norwich) finished second in 35:47 with Halina Rees (Fife AC) third in 37:26.  Lisa Stephen (Fraserburgh Running Club) was first over-40 when finishing ninth in 40:20 and Carolyn Milne (Garioch Road Runners) was first over-50 , 10^th overall, in 40:22. The over-60’s prize went to Jane Kerridge (Deeside Runners) in 42:48 and the over-70’s to Anne Docherty (Forres Harriers) in 54:34.

Hamish Hickey raced home well clear of the field to win the Baxters River Ness 5km. The 16 year-old Ross County club member completed the course in 17min 12sec to finish 16secs ahead of Scottish under-13 road running champion Lucas Cairns (Inverness Harriers) while Euan Rollo (Inverness Harriers) finished third in 17:57.

Culloden Academy pupil Isla Kelly led runners from Inverness Harriers to a clean sweep of the top three positions in the girls’ division of the run when recording 19:36. Eve Gardiner was runner-up in 20:00 while Catriona Garvie finished third in 20:39 for the second year in a row.