Cumbrian athlete becomes one of UK's fastest half marathon runners

And his display in the Houston Half Marathon also put Nutter in good company in the country’s all-time standings.

The runner, from Blencogo near Wigton, finished 37th in Houston with a time of 62mins 21secs.

It was the second fastest half marathon by a UK under-23 runner in history, with only Cardiff’s Jake Smith, who ran 60:31 in 2020, now faster than Nutter in the nation's all time standings.

Nutter’s performance at Houston on January 11 also took him into the top 50 all-time UK half-marathon standings for runners of all ages.

He is now 48th on the country’s overall list, which is headed by Mo Farah with a time of 59:22.

Former Nelson Thomlinson School student Nutter is based in the USA, where he is studying for a Masters degree in statistic and data science at University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The Border Harrier is also assistant cross country coach and a maths tutor at the university.

Scott Nutter, from Blencogo, is based in Alaska (Image: Submitted)

The talented athlete also ran his first marathon last year – and won it in style, Nutter coming first in the Fairbanks Equinox Trail Marathon in a time of 2hr 48 minutes, putting him four-and-a-half minutes ahead of the field.

The race in Interior Alaska is a renowned and highly challenging marathon which includes more than 1,000m of elevation gain.

Nutter has been training outdoors as much as possible, but with temperatures sometimes as low as -40C in Fairbanks he has been forced indoors for long treadmill sessions.

His younger brother Ben is also a promising runner, a county champion at 800m at under-17 and under-20 level, and has also won the Wigton 10k race three times.