2016 Great Scottish Run: Britain's Callum Hawkins (60:24) and Betsy Saina (67:24) both scorch GSR

Yes the course map was wrong. However the course was still considerably different from previous years. Even the BBC coverage used the map from previous years. Bear in mind the course includes a motorway bridge, park paths and dual carriageway sections so either they didn't measure the new course or they measured it first thing on race day and adjusted the course accordingly. (Unlikely?)

The fact that Saina can obliterate Kiplagat's course record shows that it has a high change for the course to be short.

Betsy Saina is now officially World Class.

Callum Hawkins is now the 2nd fastest man from Great Britain, behind only Farah at 59:22, Steve Jones is 3rd at 60:59.

I'm also highly suspicious of this. I had a shocking run felt terrible and ran a 35 second "PB". Several guys had it on their garmin as 13.0. On his post race interview, Hawkins even says it felt like the mile marker were too close at the end! Is there a chance they layout was messed up on the day by the people setting up the course?

As my name suggests, there definitely was:

1. Different course to previous years. (Govan road is closed for construction to the South of Festival Park)

2. Course map sent out was different to course ran this year and the course ran in previous years. (this is the admitted error - but no mention of the actual alterations to the course)

The finish line and start line didn't move from previous years, so that would mean the distance added at pollok park would have to be exactly equal to the distance lost at Festival park. To be fair, there was a strange squiggle performed at the bottom corner of Festival park that suggested distance was being made up.

douglas burke wrote:

Betsy Saina is now officially World Class.

Callum Hawkins is now the 2nd fastest man from Great Britain, behind only Farah at 59:22, Steve Jones is 3rd at 60:59.

Correction Betsy Saina has been World Class for a few years 14:39 for 5000 and 30:07 for 10000 and Saina has beat Hasay 10 out of the 13 times they raced.

A great race recap of the 2016 Great Scottish Run can be found here:

http://www.athleticsweekly.com/featured/callum-hawkins-smashes-scottish-record-great-scottish-run-52119

The two winners both ran incredibly well at the Olympics but to little fanfare as neither medalled. The 24-year old Hawkins, who was 26th at NCAA cross in 2011 for Butler, was 9th in the Olympic marathon while Saina ran 30:07 in the Olympic 10,000 - a time which amazingly only got her 5th.

Hawkin's mark is #2 all time for GBR and it absolutely destroyed the Scottish record by more than 2 minutes.

If Saina was American (I wonder if she someday will be as she trians as part of Jerry Schumacher's group), she'd be the new US record holder as Deena Kastor has the record at 67:34.

There was a nice messageboard thread on the race, which was broadcast live in the UK, yesterday but we wanted the results to get more billing so we started this thread.

Yesterday's thread is here:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=7730028

It was an amazing victory over Kipsiro. The only downer is that it appears they sent the field wrong (should have gone over the river and back again but instead stayed on one side) so it seems the course was short and won't be ratified.

Regardless, beating Kipsiro is an incredible effort and deserves all the accolades!

Do you mean that little over to the south and back about a mile before the finish--they just skipped it? I can't find anyone talking about it but it would certainly change the time significantly.

Actually that short stint on the southern side of the river isn't on the 2016 course map.

SuperHawk! wrote:

It was an amazing victory over Kipsiro. The only downer is that it appears they sent the field wrong (should have gone over the river and back again but instead stayed on one side) so it seems the course was short and won't be ratified.

False. see Scottish Athletics fb page comment:

"Bank of Scotland Great Scottish Run

17 hrs ·

🔹UPDATE 🔹

After a few questions about the route today we can advise that it was measured by an IAAF certified course measurer and we were issued with a certificate to confirm accuracy. The elite split times were entirely in line with what would have been expected per mile. Unfortunately there was a mistake in a course map that was issued which led to some confusion. Congratulations to everyone who took part today!"

Just to clarify that was that actually an embedded GSR post on the SA page. The original post was at

Er... wrote:

Actually that short stint on the southern side of the river isn't on the 2016 course map.

There was an error on one version of the map apparently, that has led some people to erroneously conclude it ran short. It didn't. see the fb links I posted.

This result certainly buttresses Jared Ward's run in Rio, as Ward beat Callum.

Who's number one, Steve Jones?

Steve's younger brother, Mo Farah.

ck3237 wrote:

Who's number one, Steve Jones?

The course was altered this year to due to a road closure preventing the usual loop round Festival Park. We entered Pollok Park further South to make up the distance. The course map itself was also wrong in a different way, though this is largely irrelevant.

Everyone's STRAVA accounts of the race give distances ranging from 20.7-21.0km (most are 20.9) Compare this to last year when the distances ranged from 20.0-21.2km (most were 20.1km) Now I realize GPS is pretty inaccurate, particularly over the half marathon distance so let's not focus on this too much. To quote Hawkins himself:

"I still can’t believe it. Actually, out on the course, I thought the mile markers had been wrongly placed. It was only close to the finish I really realised when I saw the clock."

The finish line and start line didn't move from previous years, so that would mean the distance added at pollok park would have to be exactly equal to the distance lost at Festival park. To be fair, there was a strange squiggle performed at the bottom corner of Festival park that suggested distance was being made up.

Regardless, Hawkin's run was incredible, and he obliterated the Scottish record by so much that none of this really matters. I just don't like the way no-one has said at any point how the course was actually different to previous years...

Worth mentioning that the conditions yesterday were perfect, don't think I've ever done a race where they were that good. (Cool temperature, sunny, no wind, crisp air) This may help explain the amazing times If you want to argue the course was the correct distance despite the alterations.

Marathon predictors put 60:24 at 2:07...2:09 range.

Your (and Callum's) mileage may vary!

A fantastic effort by Callum!