Jamie Crowe of Stirling’s Central Region club heads up a group of talented Scots who are planning to run in May’s Babcock 10K Series. Crowe was a convincing winner of last Saturday’s UK Athletics Cross Challenge in Glasgow’s Alexandra Park. He skated round the 8K undulating course in one second over 23 minutes to come home five seconds ahead of clubmate Aidan Thompson and six seconds ahead of Houghton’s England international Cameron Allan.

The talented cross-country runner heads a field of over 800 runners for the three races. The first race is the Babcock Shettleston 10K on Sunday May 11 on Glasgow Green, followed by the Babcock Dumbarton 10K on Thursday May 22 and concluding with the Babcock Helensburgh 10K on Thursday May 29.

Another promising Scottish athlete to watch will be Logan Rees from Fife. Logan ran a big personal best on 12 January in the Valencia 10K where he clocked 28:35. Logan’s track best for 10,000 metres is an impressive 28:14 which he ran at Mount Hood Community College, in Gresham, Oregon in 2023. On current form Rees is likely to threaten Weynay Ghebresilassie’s Babcock Series record of 29:32.

Joining the charge from Scotland’s top athletes is likely to be multiple past winner Ghebresilassie who has a 2:09 marathon to his credit; Scottish 10,000 metre champion Jamie Burns and World Cross-Country representative, Taha Ghafari, all from Shettleston.

They are likely to be joined by clubmate and Cross Challenge winner, Lynn McKenna and Central Region’s Morag Millar who was a close second behind McKenna on Saturday. Dundee’s Natasha Phillips remains the record holder with 32:57 and the athlete to beat. Local girls Nynke Holland-Stummer and Emily Carroll who were first and second in last year’s Babcock Helensburgh 10K impressed on Saturday in seventh and tenth places. Closely followed by former Helensburgh runner, Helen Leigh who was 11th.

Every finisher will receive a unique commemorative medal and a different item of Start Fitness merchandise at each event. Series entrants, for all three races still have until midnight on 31 January to take advantage of the ‘Early Bird Discount’ and they will also receive a specially designed Babcock 10K Series t-shirt.

If you'd like to know more, visit the Babcock 10K Series website. Or enter the races here: Shettleston 10K, Dumbarton 10K and Helensburgh 10K.

Image: Babcock 10K Series Facebook