World Cup champion Douglas pleased with his performance in Lombardy relay
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World Cup mountain-running champion Andrew Douglas was happy with his performance in an international relay event in northern Italy.
The 33-year-old from Halkirk led a Great Britain trio to fifth place in the Trofeo Ezio Vanoni race at Morbegno in the Lombardy region.
“It went how I expected it to go," said Edinburgh-based Douglas, whose team-mates were Zak Hanna and Ben Mounsey.
"I thought I would struggle on the uphill, the main climb of the race, and then I might be able to pick up some places on the descent – which is kind of how it transpired. The climb was pretty tough going and then I managed to nick a couple of places coming back down.
"This was my third time doing it and it was my fastest time on the course – so I was quite happy with that, with everything that has gone on."
After his world-beating efforts in 2019, the Covid pandemic has disrupted Douglas's schedule this year and the 2020 World Cup was one of many sporting events to be cancelled.
"It has been a strange and pretty frustrating kind of year for racing," he said. "It's just so unpredictable and there is so much uncertainty.
"At various points during the year you thought there might be a possibility of races coming back on, and then you got knocked back and they were cancelled again.
"Before the pandemic started I was doing some cross-country – that was back in February. I didn't then race again until late September, the Scottish Hill Running Championships in Perthshire.
"I'm going to take a wee break and then get stuck into winter training. It looks like there probably won't be any racing until the new year."
Douglas fits his training around his job as a financial analyst, and last year he took a sabbatical to focus on the world series.
“It was fantastic to be able to get a sabbatical and then come back and step into where I left off,” he said.
