Four teams land Inter-Counties medals

Sunday 13th March 2016

Scotland West U20 Women – golds in Birmingham (photo by Neil Renton)

From Ron Morrison

At a sun-drenched Cofton Park in Birmingham, Scottish Districts scored their best medal haul for many years at the Inter–Counties Championships.

Around 20 athletes came home with medals from a party of around 70 as no fewer than four Scottish teams took to the podium.

East District supremo Alex Jackson’s day started with a great win in the U17 Women’s team race consisting of Kate Gallagher (7th), Naomi Lang (9th), Lauren Dickson (17th) and Clare Stewart (34th).

Anna Macfadyen also excelled for the North District with an individual 4th place. Scotland West’s Laura Stark was 10^th in this race.

Not to be outdone, the West District U20 Women’s team equalled their victory in 2009 at Nottingham with Gillian Black (4th), Sarah Dempsey (16th), Kirstin Oakley (32nd) and Chloe Simpson (52nd) to the delight of the team manager John Rodger.

With the Districts encouraging one another, the East District U17 men led by Sol Sweeney in 3rd place and supported by Ben Greenwood (5th), Joe Arthur (25th) and Tristan Rees (30th) then made off with silver medals after a thrilling race.

Scotland East Senior Men – silver medals at Inter-Counties

To round off the day, and for the second time in four years, the East District Senior men’s team combined well to capture the silver medals behind the North East.

The team consisted of Michael Ferguson (15th), Alex Hendry (24th), Ben Stevenson (25th), Scott Stirling (31st), Dale Colley (33rd) and Donald MacAuley (111th).

With Scotland East’s Women having medalled for the past two years, it means Scotland have been represented on the Senior teams podiums for each of the past four years.

Other notable performances featured Euan Gillham (West District) with a 5th in the U20 Men; with Senior Women Louise Mercer (30th), inspired selection Rachael Dunn (31st) and potential Grand Prix winner Angela Richardson (45th).

Andrew MacAngus (Scotland West) finished 14th in the U15 Boys and Robert Sparks (Scotland East) 28th. Eloise Walker (Scotland East) 7^th in the U15 girls rounded off the day.

Running for VP-Glasgow, Lily-Jane Evans-Haggerty was one of the outstanding Scots of the day, winning the U13 Girls race.

*We will confirm Scottish success in the overall British Cross Challenge Series tables once those become available from British Athletics – but believe there were wins at U17 Men for Sol Sweeney (Perth Strathtay) and U13 Girls Kate Richardson (Giffnock North AAC).