South Africa training pays off for Perth middle-distance runner Ben Greenwood

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Perth’s Ben Greenwood has powered into Scotland’s all-time indoor 800m top ten.Greenwood produced a fantastic personal best run at the weekend’s Manchester World Indoor Tour event.Held at the Manchester Regional Arena, the 23-year-old ensured he started the year on the front foot by clocking 1:48.05 to win his race.The Perth Strathtay Harrier was, understandably, delighted to move into ninth in the all-time Scottish list.“It’s quite a busy top 10 and everyone in there has run really quick times,” Greenwood explained to the PA.“It’s good to be in the mix and hopefully, as the races go on, I can move up a few more spaces on the list.”Greenwood, on the race itself, continued: “You need to take advantage of every opportunity you’ve got.“I wanted to attack the race early to make sure I’d put myself in a good position to run a decent time.“Having seen the result from the first 800m race of the day, I knew there was a chance to get the top prize.

I attacked it hard.“We only had the pacer for 300m so it was quite difficult on that third lap to maintain the pace.“But I’ve done so many sessions on my own through the winter and I’m used to having to do the work.

I don’t get stressed out from being in that position.“It was actually the first time I’d run indoors at 800m since 2017. I’d have been a bit annoyed if I didn’t get a PB!”The strong early-year run was helped by a recent training camp in South Africa.“I managed to get out for 18 days,” Greenwood told the PA. “The sessions were really good and the weather was fantastic.“Everything went exactly as we had hoped it would.

I was mainly in with Tom Randolph who is based out of St Mary’s University in London.“There was a decent group out there and we were all moving at similar