Gala Harriers juniors swapped the green and white for school colours as they competed in the Scottish School Cross Country Championships at Beach Park, Irvine. Represented in five of eight events, there were some good performances from Galashiels Academy and Earlston High School pupils. In the boys U14 age group, Jack McDonald (Gala Acad) was the first Harrier home in a large field, followed up by Innes Campbell (Earlston).
In the girls U15, Eilidh Forbes (Earlston) ran well to finish just outside the top 50 with Rhiannon Fagan (Earlston) not far behind in 75th place. In the boys U17 race, there were strong runs from Faisal Khursheed (Earlston) in 24th place and Robert Fox and James Logan (both Gala Acad) in 59th and 94th respectively. In the girls U17 race, Katie Rourke (Earlston) followed up her strong run at the National XC Champs with another good run in 26th place and was well backed up by Elena Heger (Earlston) in 46th. In the senior age group, Thomas Otton (Gala Acad) was the sole representative and produced the highest place finish of any Harrier on the day with 11th.
In other races, Anne Purves completed the inaugural High Terrain 10km race in Glentress Forest and in perfect conditions, enjoyed her run over the beautiful but tough scenic trails to finish in 1 hour 19 mins.
Meanwhile, further west, Steph McDowall headed for Loch Lomond shores for the start of the fast and flat Balloch to Clydebank half marathon and she ran an excellent race to finish 9th female in a time of 1.30:08