Age group titles head for Inverness and Giffnock North

Sunday 24th October 2021

Giffnock North AC celebrate their gold medal win in the Young Males race (photo by Bobby Gavin)

Yellow leaves on the trees . . . and yellow vests on the podium.

Our young athlete races captured the imagination of clubs across the length and breadth of Scotland and it was Giffnock North AC and Inverness Harriers who captured the gold medals.

In fact, three of the six sets of medals on offer in the Young Females and Young Males races were bound for the south side of Glasgow from Scone Palace as Giffnock enjoyed terrific cross country success once again.

Photos on Facebook by Bobby Gavin

The Young Females race was the first of the day – our first action in a National context in cross country since February 2020. And Inverness were to dominate from first leg to the finishing line.

Lois Macrae set them off well and that was followed up on the second leg by a strong run from Katie Meek. U17 Anna Cairns was able to bring it home with a decent advantage.

The battles further back concluded with silver medals for the Team East Lothian trio of Cerys Wright, Eily Sinclair and Mia Thomson.

Giffnock won the bronze medals thanks to runs from Freya Scobie, Freya Campbell and Esme Dougall.

All the medallists were naturally delighted and for Inverness it was a special moment after all those early morning, and sometimes overnight, trips to compete at National events.

Inverness Harriers celebrate their gold medal success in the Young Females race (photo by Bobby Gavin)

Here’s the podium from the Young Females race as winners Inverness Harriers are joined by Team East Lothian and Giffnock North (photo by Bobby Gavin)

The Young Males race followed and it was quickly apparent that Giffnock would take some stopping. In the end, their A team were to take the golds and their B team the bronzes.

Just to add to our yellow theme at Scone Palace, it was Kilbarchan AAC who split them to take silvers.

Calum Dick and Craig Shennan set the race up nicely for Giffnock’s last leg runner and Reuben Macdonald had a comfortable run for home.

Kilbarchan, well served on legs one and two by Alastair Street and Oliver Patton, saw their way to silvers thanks to the anchor run of Luke Lindsay.

Giffnock’s bronze medal-winning team featured good runs by Aaron Reid, Alastair Nugent and Cameron Deverill.

It can only be assumed that the team selection for Giffnock’s entries for the Young Males race takes a fair bit thought and there might have been an element of relief in the outcome there!

Healthy competition within the club is clearly a strong foundation for success.

We send our congratulations to all our medallists in the Young Females and Young Males races but also to every athlete who ran on Saturday.

It was brilliant to see such commitment to competition and we thanks all the clubs, coaches, parents and helpers working to develop our young athletes in the sport.