CAMERON MILNE marked his international debut with third place in the Lillebaelt Half Marathon in Denmark with a lifetime best of 66:39.

The hopeful, who was in the same class at Kinross High School as Laura Muir, over-hauled Olympian Derek Hawkins with two kilometres left to become the first Scot across the line with Forres Harriers Mark Mitchell finishing eighth.

“The race started at a good pace and we went through 10K at just over 31 minutes which is close to my PB,” said Milne. “I fell off the lead group at about seven miles and I didn’t expect to get back to Derek so it must have been a pretty strong finish. In myself I knew

I could run 66 and that’s consistent with the progress I had hoped to make so I have to be pleased.”

Gemma Rankin was the top Scottish woman in fifth place in 79:25 but for Hawkins, his Danish outing was a next stop along the road to recovery from a back injury that ruled him out of bidding for a marathon berth at this summer’s world championships in London. “It was a good field and this is a step in the right direction,” he said.

Meanwhile, Eilish McColgan has revealed injury hampered her hopes of earning a world championship qualifying mark at the first attempt. The European indoor medallist was fifth in the 5000m at the Payton Jordan Invitational in California but her time of 15:22.12 was a frustrating 12-hundredths of a second outside the standard. “It was not the race I wanted,” she said. [I was] running in flats. Frustrated to have missed a few weeks with injury but on to the next.” Fellow Scot Chris O’Hare took second place in the 1500 metres while Callum Hawkins dropped out of the 10,000m with a reported hamstring issue.