A few days after Langley runner Sarah Inglis realized her long-standing dream of representing her native Scotland, it was put on hold, as result of the COVID-19 virus outbreak.
On Tuesday, March, 3rd, Inglis, a Langley Mustangs Endurance athlete, was named to the team that would run for Great Britain team at the World Half-Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland at the end of the month.
On Thursday, March 5th, Inglis learned the event was being postponed until October 17th as a result of concerns about the virus.
A disappointed Inglis said she was “a bit gutted” by the news, but described the decision as understandable under the circumstances.
“[I] will be looking forward it later in the year,” Inglis told the Langley Advance Times.
Inglis had qualified for the team as the top ranked British athlete after she ran 70 minutes and 24 seconds at the Houston Half Marathon in January.
Her time placed her as the third fastest women on Scottish history behind Olympians Liz Nuttall and Stephanie Twell.
Her next race will be the BMO St Patrick’s Day 5K road race in Vancouver on Saturday, March 14th, where she set a Canadian record in 2019 of 15 minutes and 29 seconds.
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Inglis grew up in Falkirk, a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, where she took up running along with her brother and sister (they are triplets).
In announcing the World Half-Marathon Championships were being postponed, the statement by World Athletics cited “the ongoing uncertainty created by the spread of the coronavirus internationally” and noted the event was to include a mass race of more than 25,000 recreational runners.
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