Athlete in the running to be first Inverness winner of Loch Ness Marathon
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SHAUN Cumming is being considered as a serious contender to become the first Inverness athlete to win the Loch Ness Marathon.
The Highland Hill Runners athlete finished in third place last year in a personal best time of 2:26:35 behind race winner Dougie Selman and Isaiah Kosgei.
With both last year’s top two absent this weekend, the Highland Hill Runners club member could be poised to claim the biggest win of his career.
The 33-year-old said he is going into the race in good form and thinks if he produces a similar performance to last year, could be a contender
“I don’t think there’s ever been an Inverness winner of the Loch Ness Marathon, so it would be nice to do that, but we’ll have to see what happens.
“I feel i’m in about the same form as last year, so I’d like to run a similar time, or even a little quicker.
"I had hoped to be in better shape, but I missed a few months of training at the beginning of the year because of a persistent Achilles problem.
“However, my preparations have gone well in recent weeks.”
The NHS worker attributes the lockdown spell as being a pivotal period in transforming his running career.
He said: “I had been improving gradually beforehand, but during lockdown I started focussing much more on my running.
“I made a conscious effort to learn how to train properly by reading books and watching YouTube videos to improve my knowledge.
“That helped give more structure to my training and I began to do much better.”
Manchester’s Tom Charles, who was a late entrant, is expected to be one of the main challengers for the title.
The Chorlton athlete was runner-up in this year’s Edinburgh Marathon where he recorded 2:22:56 - just 57 seconds outside his best.
He also won the Rhodes marathon in April.
Matthew Sutherland, who competes for Central AC, also has the potential to do well if he is on song.
The Thurso athlete has a best time of 2:24:49 from London in 2021 but hasn’t run any marathons since then.
Rosa Donaldson, a 23 year-old Glasgow University dentistry student, is one of the favourites to win the women’s race on Sunday.
London’s Melissah Gibson who has a best time of 2:43:42 set at Seville in Spain in 2022 is expected to be her biggest contender for the title.
