Hawick athlete Thomas MacAskill sets new record at Berwick Curfew Run

Borderer Thomas MacAskill with coach Henry Gray, left, after winning 2024's Berwick Curfew Run on WednesdayBorderer Thomas MacAskill with coach Henry Gray, left, after winning 2024's Berwick Curfew Run on Wednesday
Borderer Thomas MacAskill with coach Henry Gray, left, after winning 2024's Berwick Curfew Run on Wednesday
Borderer Thomas MacAskill this week broke a course record of eight years’ standing at Berwick’s annual Curfew Run.

The 20-year-old last week beat the record of six minutes and five seconds for what has since been reduced by about 100m to a 1.28-mile course set by host club Tweed Striders’ Nathan Cox in 2015, also bettering the record of 6:24 for the new shorter course set by Exeter’s Simeon Bates in 2018.

MacAskill, now back in his home-town of Hawick after deciding a sports psychology and science degree course he started in the US last August wasn’t for him after all, clocked 6:02 last Wednesday evening, knocking three seconds off Cox’s record and 22 off Bates’s.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

That record-breaking appearance in Northumberland was only a plan B, though, as he was supposed to be taking part in another event the other side of the border, his first 800m race of the season at a North East Grand Prix meeting in Jarrow in South Tyneside, but it was called off at short notice, forcing him to look elsewhere for a run-out.

“It’s pretty annoying that my race got cancelled but I’m happy to have run a course record,” said MacAskill.

“There was a tough hill about a mile in of around 100m but by that time, I already had quite a bit of momentum, and by the time I got to the top, I had only a few hundred yards left.

“I’m very pleased to have won and beat the record.

“I was quite nervous when there was a group of us running for the first mile, but I managed to find a little bit of daylight once we went up the hill and I kept pushing for the line and won by a good margin in the end.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“It was really good to break the record as it’s stood for some time.”

MacAskill, now being coached by Eyemouth’s Henry Gray, has already clocked a time of 4:11 over 1,500m this year and is hoping to break through the four-minute barrier by the end of the season.

Next up for him, after Saturday gone’s Jedburgh Border Games, is a Glasgow Athletics Association milers’ meet at the end of the month at the city’s Crownpoint Sports Complex and this year’s Scottish 1,500m championships at Grangemouth in August.

Runner-up at Berwick last week was Tyne Bridge Harriers’ Paul O’Mara in 6:23, with Gala Harriers 14-year-old Oliver Hastie third out of a field of 71 in 6:33.

More Jedburgh Border Games coverage on pages 45 to 47

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.

News you can trust since 1855
Follow us
©National World Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy notice