Athletics: Freya aims to take bite out of Big Apple

Capital star Freya Murray will contest the New York Half Marathon on Sunday intent on beating her one and only time for the distance, the 72:44 she recorded on her debut in the Great North Run last year.

“I’d like to go anything quicker than that,” she said before leaving her altitude training base in Boulder, Colorado where she has been since her retention of her Scottish Cross Country title at Falkirk last month.

The 28-year-old Edinburgh AC member was due to fly to New York today for her last race before her debut on April 22 in the Virgin London Marathon, which is also the official Olympic trial.

Not quoted by the pundits as a contender for a British team place in London 2012 — presumably as she has not yet raced the Classic distance — Murray herself believes she has an outside chance of making the team. To do that however, she will probably have to beat fellow Scot Susan Partridge.

Partridge, who has also been training in Boulder, is in the form of her life having set a personal best of 71:34 for the half distance in Bath last weekend, 59 seconds better than her previous best.

Murray therefore, will be quietly hoping for something near Partridge’s time on Sunday.

Also racing on Sunday will be her younger sister Keira (Lasswade), a triathlon specialist who makes her debut for Scotland in a Home Countries Cross Country international in Glasgow.