THE rigours of Arthur's Seat is a challenge undertaken by many around the capital each day, but few view the Edinburgh landmark as a stepping-stone to the Olympic Games.
This weekend, some of the most famous names in athletics will show how fast real athletes can whip up and round Holyrood Park as the IAAF World Cross Country Championships touch down in Scotland. As well as having sights on the team medals, Australi
a will feature individual title prospects in Craig Mottram and Benita Johnson, guided by Sonia O'Sullivan, now the Aussies' team manager, among a host of up-and-coming young talents.
Collis Birmingham is fresh from being crowned Australia's new 10,000 metres champion and the 23-year-old admitted he was desperate to tackle what O'Sullivan had told him was the toughest athletics race in the world, again.
"I ran in this race for the first time in Mombasa last year," he explained, "but this is a bigger challenge because I want to improve on how I did then, I want to use it to make me stronger for my challenges on the Olympic qualifying times this summer for the 5,000k and 10,000k, and Sonia has told me a lot about running up steep parts of … is it called 'Arthur's Seat?' – I'm looking forward to that.
"The last time I came to Scotland I won the 1500m on the track in Glasgow, last year, and I love it here. It is cold, yeah, but I'm from Ballarat near Melbourne, and it gets pretty cold there too."
Birmingham already has the 'B' qualifying mark for the 5000m and 1500m for Beijing. He aims to shed the six seconds needed from the former to make the main event, and believes running for Australia in Scotland is ideal preparation.
"You have to be strong physically and mentally to compete at the top in athletics and this race tests you in both ways," he said.
The full article contains 337 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
