Newly-wed Freya second in Great Run

But Freya Murray’s first race as Mrs Ross was slightly less successful than she hoped as she came home second to Stockport visitor Jess Coulson in the Great Edinburgh Run 10k road race which finished outside Holyrood Palace yesterday.

“It was a wee bit disappointing,” admitted Murray, who had married Michael Ross only eight days previously and is moving back to live in the Capital.

“But it’s been so busy this last week.”

Today the happy couple fly out to San Franciso to begin their delayed honeymoon.

“It would have been nice to have gone with a win,” said the new Mrs Ross, who was first Briton to finish in the London 2012 Olympic Marathon last August.

“About 5k a gap opened and I couldn’t get it back – the hills were really tough and there were some tight turns but I wasn’t too surprised by Jess – I knew she’d be well up there.”

Coulson finished in a personal best time of 33 mins 12 secs with Murray-Ross (33:48) well back and Elspeth Curran (Kilbarchan) third in 35:45, while Gillian Palmer (EAC) was fifth in 36:45.

Fife’s Andrew Lemoncello was also beaten, by just one second in a sprint finish by GB internationalist Tom Humphries (Cannock & Staffs), who finished in 29:23, but he was delighted with his performance:

“That’s the hardest 10k I’ve ever run but I’m very happy with it – I’m way ahead of where I thought I was,” said the Flagstaff, Arizona-based Scot who will contest the California International Marathon in Sacramento on December 10 after missing out on the London Olympics through injury.

Lemoncello led the East to victory in the Scottish Inter-District Championship with Capital-based Durham Harrier Michael Crawley next home, fifth in 31:44, Alex Hendry (Central) sixth and Lasswade junior Ross Matheson seventh in 32:13: “I was hoping for a personal best of under 31:46 but it was a hard course,” said Matheson.