Nathaniel "Nat" Muir (born 12 March 1958) from Salsburgh North Lanarkshire is a Scottish retired long-distance runner. He competed at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships on ten occasions, four times as a junior from 1974 to 1977 and six times as a senior between 1978 and 1987. [1]
Muir took up athletics in 1970 while at primary school in Chapelhall. He was encouraged by his fellow pupils to join the Shettleston Harriers running club, and his first race was the Lanarkshire Relays in 1970, which saw him earn the fastest individual time in his age group. [2]
His career has seen some ups and downs and he has been described as "One of Scotland's best ever distance runners: possibly also one of the country's unluckiest in that he never had the success at the very topmost level that his ability and dedication deserved". [3]
Muir ran in many competitions throughout his career from his humble beginnings in 1970 spanning over twenty years, with some notable successes such as his fifth win at the 1984 Irvine Beach Park. [4] His last race was in the 1992-93 season on the Glasgow-Edinburgh run where his team came in 7th with Muir's recurring Achilles tendon injury.
Muir himself knew that with the injury his time had come to retire, a decision not brought on by team performance but by his knowledge of his personal limitations to his own fitness and a previous race, the Allan Scally Relay, as a gauge for the upcoming Glasgow-Edinburgh run. He reflected that "athletics is essentially an individual sport with a team element coming second to that. No one can gainsay that".[ citation needed ]
A relay race is a racing competition where members of a team take turns completing parts of racecourse or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of professional races and amateur games. Relay races are common in running, orienteering, swimming, cross-country skiing, biathlon, or ice skating. In the Olympic Games, there are several types of relay races that are part of track and field. Relay race, also called Relay, a track-and-field sport consisting of a set number of stages (legs), usually four, each leg run by a different member of a team. The runner finishing one leg is usually required to pass the next runner a stick-like object known as a "baton" while both are running in a marked exchange zone. In most relays, team members cover equal distances: Olympic events for both men and women are the 400-metre and 1,600-metre relays. Some non-Olympic relays are held at distances of 800 m, 3,200 m, and 6,000 m. In the less frequently run medley relays, however, the athletes cover different distances in a prescribed order—as in a sprint medley of 200, 200, 400, 800 metres or a distance medley of 1,200, 400, 800, 1,600 metres
Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. Sometimes the runners are referred to as harriers. The course, typically 4–12 kilometres (2.5–7.5 mi) long, may include surfaces of grass, and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road. It is both an individual and a team sport; runners are judged on individual times and teams by a points-scoring method. Both men and women of all ages compete in cross country, which usually takes place during autumn and winter, and can include weather conditions of rain, sleet, snow or hail, and a wide range of temperatures.
The 1984 IAAF World Cross Country Championships was held in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States, at the Meadowlands Racetrack on March 25, 1984. A report on the event was given in the Glasgow Herald.
Clydesdale Harriers are an athletics club, founded in 1885. It was Scotland's first amateur open athletics club with the object of promoting amateur athletics generally and cross country running in particular.
Allister Hutton is a former elite long-distance runner from Scotland, who won the London Marathon in 1990. He competed in three consecutive Commonwealth Games for Scotland during his career, starting in 1978.
The 1977 IAAF World Cross Country Championships was held in Düsseldorf, West Germany, at the Galopprennbahn Düsseldorf-Grafenberg on March 20, 1977. A report on the event was given in the Glasgow Herald.
Gemma Steel is a British long-distance runner who competes in road running and cross country running competitions. She was the 2014 gold medallist at the European Cross Country Championships. She has represented Great Britain internationally in cross country, road and track events. She has won at three of the Great Run series events: the Great Ireland Run, Great Birmingham Run and Great Yorkshire Run. She has also won the Bristol Half Marathon and placed seventh at the 2012 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships.
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The 1938 International Cross Country Championships was held in Belfast, Northern Ireland, at the Royal Ulster Showground on 2 April 1938. In addition, an unofficial women's championship was held three weeks earlier in Lille, France on 12 March 1938. A report on the men's event was given in the Glasgow Herald.
The 1953 International Cross Country Championships was held in Vincennes, France, at the Hippodrome de Vincennes on March 21, 1953. A report on the event was given in the Glasgow Herald.
The Senior men's race at the 1984 IAAF World Cross Country Championships was held in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States, at the Meadowlands Racetrack on March 25, 1984. A report on the event was given in the Glasgow Herald.
The Junior men's race at the 1984 IAAF World Cross Country Championships was held in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States, at the Meadowlands Racetrack on March 25, 1984. A report on the event was given in the Glasgow Herald.
The Senior women's race at the 1984 IAAF World Cross Country Championships was held in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States, at the Meadowlands Racetrack on March 25, 1984. A report on the event was given in the Glasgow Herald.
Matthew Hudson-Smith is a British track and field sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres. He holds a personal best of 44.48 seconds for the distance set during the semifinals at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where he qualified for the final and finished in 8th place with a time of 44.61.
Allan Watt (1922–2014) was a Scottish sprinter who represented Scotland and Great Britain in international competition.
Paul Donovan (athlete) is an Irish former long-distance runner. He was the silver medallist in the 3000 metres at the 1987 IAAF World Indoor Championships. He was the number one ranked indoor runner that year. He represented Ireland at the Olympics twice: in 1984 and again in 1992.
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