The Lindsays National Cross Country Season is upon us again, and it’s helping to build communities as well as champions.
Each autumn brings the start of the new Lindsays National XC Season, and there’s great anticipation building this year.
Last year saw the season achieve its own PB, with more runners involved than ever before. Over 2,250 people took part, which is much higher than the 1,600 runners we had when we first began sponsoring the Scottish Cross Country Season in 2014.
There was also a PB on the number of local athletics clubs involved - 103 clubs in season 2017/18 compared to 75 the season before.
Special mention goes to Garscube Harriers, who scooped the award for highest participation. They had 106 runners at the National XC Championships at Falkirk’s Callendar Park in February – an admirable achievement. Added to the number of athletes the club had participating at the other National Championship events this saw them edge past last year’s winners Giffnock North AC.
There are different factors behind this growing engagement with the National XC Season. Social media activity is boosting membership and entry numbers. Technology has helped too – the Championships were broadcast live with drone footage, and got over 40,000 views in the UK and USA.
And people help too – all the volunteers who run local clubs and events throughout the year (on the subject of which, if you wish to do your own bit for sport, see the article opposite on being a charity trustee).
At grassroots level, these athletics clubs help to build local communities, introduce people to sport, and give them confidence and friends for life.
At the elite level, the season helps Scotland produce world-class athletes. One of these, 2016 Olympian Callum Hawkins presented the Lindsays Trophy to Garscube Harriers at one of their training nights.
Callum himself has twice won Senior Gold at the Lindsays National XC, he said: “Cross country is really important to the sport in Scotland. It was how I started out, and that’s where I had early success.”
Our Chief Operating Officer, Ian Beattie, who chairs scottishathletics, added: “The level of engagement in the last Lindsays XC series reflects the great work taking place in athletics clubs across Scotland and we are pleased to support this work through our sponsorship of the series.”
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