MEMBERS of Kilbarchan Amateur Athletic Club have a great incentive to take part in this year’s Petrofac Challenge 15-mile mixed terrain run at Balmoral Castle.

For the winners of the men’s and women’s races in the mixed terrain run at Balmoral Castle in April will win a trip to a major African event – supported by Ethiopian distance running legend Haile Gebrselassie.

The prize is the most valuable ever offered in a north-east running event.

And organisers are hopeful that it will persuade many of Scotland’s top distance runners – including those from Kibarchan AAC, known as the Habbies – to make the journey to Deeside over the weekend of Saturday, April 28, and Sunday, April 29.

James Knowles, chairman of Balmoral Road Races, believes the prize will prove to be a big attraction.

He said: “Our programme of races at Balmoral offers something for runners of all ages and abilities.

“But we felt we wanted to go a step further by doing something positive and exciting to promote opportunities for Scotland’s best athletes.

“Ethiopia is one of the strongest distance running countries in the world and we have developed some good contacts over there.

“This has allowed us to put together a package which will give the men’s and women’s winners of the Petrofac Challenge the chance to compete in a top Ethiopian race.

“It’s more than likely that the Balmoral race winners will get the opportunity to meet Haile Gebrselassie when they travel to Africa!”

The Ethiopian, who has won four world titles and set 27 world records during a long and glittering career, hopes to compete in the marathon at the London Olympics where he aims to add to the gold medals he won in the 10,000m at the 1996 and 2000 Games.

Balmoral stages a series of races that weekend with the Petrofac Challenge as the centrepiece.

The programme opens on Saturday, April 28, with the Stena Drilling Tartan 10k and the ConocoPhillips 5k races for adults, as well as the Kongsberg Maritime secondary schools 2.5k and the primary schools 1.5k.

On the Sunday, there is the Petrofac Challenge and the Taqa Bratani Diamond Jubilee Mile.


Source: http://icrenfrewshire.icnetwork.co.uk/