THE Scottish Primary Schools Cross Country Championships took place at Kirkcaldy High School on Saturday and there was great success for Borders schools.
Five medals were won in total, two of them gold.
Such is the popularity of this event, with schools entered from the length and breadth of Scotland, that the races were split into two sections, A to K and L to Z, with races being run over 1,600m.
Of the eight races for P6 and P7 boys and girls, two team gold medals, a team silver, a team bronze and an individual silver were brought back to the Borders.
The first medal secured was team bronze by Kingsland from Peebles in the A-K P6 girls’ race with Alice Bryce leading the team home for a total of 86 points, with a highly commendable ninth place, in 7 minutes 6 seconds.
They were swiftly followed by the first gold of the day, a convincing team win by near neighbours Priorsford in the L-Z P6 girls’ race. Beth Hobbs in fifth (6.53), Molly Falconer (8th) and Elena McGorum (17th) were the counters for a 30-point team total.
The P6 boys’ A-K race saw the best Borders’ individual performance of the day from Rory Williams from Chirnside, who took individual silver. Rory returned the fastest time of the day by any Borders runner (6.08) and led his team to another silver medal with 38 points. Jamie Kinghorn (13th) and Ben Reynolds (23rd) were the other counters.
The fifth Borders medal came courtesy of Kingsland’s P7 boys who took a fantastic team, gold with 55 points.
Jamie Lawson led the team home in fourth (6.13), backed up by brother Scott (21st) and Mack Reed (30th).
There were two further top-10 finishes on the day for Borders runners with an excellent ninth place (6.49) for Priorsford’s Anna McGorum in the P7 girls’ L-Z race and schoolmate Euan Hood ran well for seventh (6.17) in the P7 boys’ L-Z race.
All in all, this was a great effort from all the Borders runners.