Derrick and Heath dominate Great Edinburgh XC

Chris Derrick and Garrett Heath repeated last year’s success when they ran out as winners again at the Great Edinburgh XC.

Garrett Heath won the invitational 4km race at Holyrood Park, the venue for the 2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, while Chris Derrick also successfully defended his title over 8km.

Heath went to the front at the start of the second 2km lap with only Korir for company as the others started to drop back. With 1km to go, Heath had an advantage of about 20 metres and he gradually pulled further away from his Kenyan rival to cross the line in 12:11. Click here to watch his finish.

“After the first lap no one was pushing the pace. I thought they were either waiting or tired, so I said to myself I will try and go for it.”

Korir was eight seconds behind to finish second; Dathan Ritzenhein ran another great race to finish third in 12:27min. Kiprop, Kenya’s 2008 Olympic Games gold medallist and two-time world 1500m champion only finished fourth.

Here the complete results (men’s 4km race).

Chris Derrick then added to a successful day for the US men.

The 24 year-old defending champion Derrick continued to push the pace on the third lap. As the runners heard the bell, Derrick was 15 metres ahead of former Stanford team-mate Jacob Riley with the others another 15 metres back.

“It was a really hard race on a tough course,…  Fortunately the final part was downhill.”

At the end Derrick successfully defended his title and crossed the finish line in 25:31min.

Click here to view the complete results (men’s 8km race).