LAST Saturday, Team East Lothian (TEL) sent a number of young athletes to the Scottish Athletics East District Cross Country Relays in Livingston.

With the clouds opening up for almost the previous 24 hours, the conditions underfoot for the runners were wet, slippery and muddy, and there was little reprieve from the rain all day.

The relays for the younger runners are made up of different age groups from under-13 to under-17, and allow the athletics clubs to field more than one team.

In the young female category, TEL fielded three teams: Imogen Turner, Cerys Wright and Olivia Robbins; Ava-Rose Curtis, Freya Brown and Rachel Stevens; and Tessa Russell, Sula Semple and Lois Thomson.

All teams ran very well, with Turner, Wright and Robbins winning the gold medal and both Turner and Wright running the fastest first and seconds legs of the day.

East Lothian Courier: Imogen Turner and Josh Cooper were in impressive form in DunfermlineImogen Turner and Josh Cooper were in impressive form in Dunfermline

Curtis, Brown and Stevens narrowly missed out on the podium and achieved a superb fourth place while Russell, Semple and Thomson came home in 20th overall.

In the young male race, TEL fielded one team comprising Josh Cooper, Joe Smith and Fraser Lupton.

All three ran superbly in a very competitive race and were rewarded with the bronze medal.

In the senior men’s race, world under-17 age group record holder for the mile Corey Campbell ran a solo first leg and ran the fastest leg of the day.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Schools’ Athletics Association Road Race Championships were held at Pittencrieff Park in Dunfermline earlier this month.

Team East Lothian was well represented across all the age group races.

 

 

Weather was typically Scottish, with the heavens opening up just before the high school races began.

In the S1 girls’ race, Imogen Turner (North Berwick High School) ran a superb race to take the win over the 2.5k distance in eight minutes.

Ava-Rose Curtis (Ross High School) also had a great run to finish sixth in the same race in 8m39s.

In the S1 boys’ event, Josh Cooper (North Berwick High School) had a closely fought race and was just pipped for the win but took a very credible silver medal in a time of 7m46s over the same 2.5k course.

Cerys Wright (North Berwick High School) ran convincingly to take the gold medal in the 3rd/4th year girls’ race, with Matthew Connolly (Dunbar Grammar School) running well in the boys’ race.

There were also top-10 finishes for Howie Allison (Loretto School) and Fraser Lupton (James Gillespie’s High School) in the senior boys’ race, as well as great runs from Charlie Copp (Portobello High School), Magnus Lawson (Loretto School), Joe Smith (Portobello High School) and Thomas Gornall (Dunbar Grammar School) in the same race.

In the senior girls’ race there were fine performances from Eily Sinclair (Portobello High School), Rachel Stevens (North Berwick High School), Ella Nicolson (Portobello High School) and Christina Elliot (Portobello High School). Portobello High School took home silver in the team competition.