THERE was vicarious success for the Scottish hosts in Saturday’s Great Caledonian Run internationals at Balmoral with Craig Mottram, from Australia, dominating and winning over 5km.

The 23-year-old, who, fresh from high-altitude training in California, also won the Bannister Four-Minute Mile race in Oxford on Thursday, reveals a Scottish descent — his mother comes from Dunkeld, and, he says, he is named after Craig A Barns, the rocky crag that rises high behind the town.

Given that, after his win on Saturday, the Melbourne man came tantalisingly close to admitting that he will switch to a British passport after the Olympics, speculation is sure to grow that he could run for Scotland at the next Commonwealth Games.

Mottram had just demonstrated what an asset he would be to British distance running as, after a quiet first kilometre, he stepped up a gear on the hill to leave the opposition — including Jon Kibowen, from Kenya, the two times world cross-country winner, and Sergia Lebid, from Ukraine, four times the European cross-country champion — at a loss for an answer.

“The Africans have dominated distance running for 15 years,“ Mottram said. “Now the tide is turning.” His winning time of 13min 21sec was tenth fastest in a road race.

The women’s race provided a tanatalising battle between Adere Berhane, from Ethiopa, the world 10,000 metre title holder, and Sonia O’Sullivan, from Ireland, which Berhane won, finishing seven seconds clear in 15:04.

Collette Fagan gave Scotland its best international result of the day in tenth position in 16:24. But she was bettered by Hayley McGregor, another Australian proud of her Scottish descent, who continued her build up for the Olympics with fifth place in 15:36.

In the 10km main feature, Mike Carroll, from Dundee, lost the lead on the hill to Dan Whitehead, from Aberdeen, then regained it in the descent and won in 33:35.