Glasgow Course Found To Be Short, Scottish Record Vanishes

The organisers of the 2016 Great Scottish Run have announced that the route was found to be 149.7m short after the re-measurement of the half marathon course. Callum Hawkins won the men’s race in a Scottish record of 1:00:24 but that time will now be invalidated.

In the race staged in Glasgow City Center on 2 October 2016, Hawkins was the first British winner of the event in 23 years, becoming the all-time Great Britain number 2 behind Mo Farah. However, the measurement to confirm the distance for the ratification of the Scottish record broken by the Paisley born athlete revealed the shortness of the course. It is understood that a small section of the prescribed route was not followed correctly in Bellahouston Park, which accounted for approximately 50 metres of the shortfall. The remainder of the shortfall was as a result of the difference between measuring on closed roads compared to a measure on unclosed roads, which was the methodology used in August as a result of notification of essential utilities works affecting the course.

The Great Run Company, organiser of the event, announced in a statement that “they are extremely disappointed that these errors have been made and they have apologised to Hawkins, who fully deserved his place in the record books after his fine run”. Betsy Saina, the winner of the women’s elite race in a time of 1:07:22 was also apologised to.

The performances achieved in the 2016 Great Scottish Run would now be declared invalid, and those performances will be listed separately in the statistics under a “short course” notice.