Neil Lafferty made a trip to Ayr to race the Scottish Athletics National Masters 5000m championships, which was held at the state of the art Riverside Sports Arena.
In breezy conditions, Neil went off hard from the gun. Race leader and eventual winner Dermot Cummins (Corstorphine ASC), however, was pushing very strongly ahead of the field, opening a commanding lead and winning the race and v40 gold in a time of 15.22. This left Neil out in a solo effort for the majority of the race. Having run the hilly Harriers club race, the Singlehurst trail race, the previous day, his legs were feeling that effort in the last 2k.
V35 runner Scott Macleod steadily gained ground and made a move with 3 laps to go. Neil couldn’t quite hang on to his coat tails – however, he finished strongly on the final lap to secure the v45 gold medal in an excellent time of 16.06.
Impressively, Neil’s performance completed ‘the treble’ of National titles, winning gold in the 3,000m, 5,000m and now the 10,000m in the V45 category in 2025, a hugely impressive feat and well deserved for the in-form club champion. In addition to this, Neil’s 5k time (at Fast ‘n’ Flat) of 15:36 puts him 10th quickest in Britain. Furthermore, Neil has secured National silver in the 1500m and bronze in the recent National 10k road race champs.