Hundreds enjoy XC with three league meetings on same day

Monday 21st November 2022

Cross country’s popularity in Scotland remains strong and an historic weekend unfolded with three league events taking place on the same day.

We had highlighted on these pages last midweek that the debut for the newly-formed West District XC League with a fixture at Strathaven marked a special occasion.

The East and North leagues are firmly establish and continue to flourish with events on Saturday in Dundee and Evanton respectively.

Alex Jackson has advised us there were just shy of 600 finishers in Dundee with the tallies as follows for three events:

*East League hosted by Dundee Hawkhill Harriers – 594 finishers

*West League hosted by East Kilbride AC – 435 finishers

*North League hosted by Ross County AC – 248 finishers

Well done first and foremost the clubs and the volunteers/Officials who are making this happen.

The Lindsays District XC events are coming soon – on Saturday 3 December – and we’ve had an excellent entry from athletes.

One aspect that is good to see at league level is the races in the U11 age group.

Arguably it is not appropriate for National competition, but we are delighted to see clubs giving their youngest athletes a first taste of cross country and hopefully the more relaxed nature of a league meeting eases any potential anxiety and ensures the focus is on enjoyment.

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Start of the mixed Senior race at Strathaven (photo by Gordon Goldie)

The opening meeting of the new West District XC League drew over 450 athletes from around 20 clubs to compete at Strathaven.

Well done to organisers and host club East Kilbride AC for getting the league off the ground (after many years of informal discussions on this subject).

Photos and Results are starting to appear now via the new West District League channels.

Provisional Results (with amendments and further team results to follow in due course)

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Action from Dundee (photo by Neil Renton)

Dundee hosted the second meeting of the East XC League today with thanks to Dundee Hawkhill Harriers and all volunteers.

Hamish Hickey (Central AC) won the Senior Men’s race with Corstorphine AAC being first team.

Kirsty Walker (Edinburgh AC) won the Senior Women’s race to lead Edinburgh to the team win.

Provisional Results

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There was a big Stornoway RAC contingent at Eventon (photo via Twitter)

Results from the North District Cross Country League event held at Evanton are on the league’s Facebook page.

Paul Rogan on the North District RR and CC Facebook page said: ‘Thank you to Ross County for hosting this event and to all those who assisted in putting on a fantastic afternoon of racing.

‘It’s really good to see increased numbers again competing over the country especially in the Senior mixed race.

‘These events really are suitable for all abilities so if you’ve not given them a go yet why not come along to Dores, Inverness, on Saturday 10 December.’

Results

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Tags: Dundee Hawkhill Harriers, East Kilbride AC, East XC League, North XC League, Ross County AC, West XC League