End of the cross country season

The curtain came down on the final race of the cross country season with the picturesque setting of Hosta in North Uist hosting the event in style.

The courses’ natural terrain of undulating machair and leg-sapping beach running, through soft and shifting sand providing the ultimate running challenge - not to mention the tough climb up a sand dune coming off the beach.

Senior runner William MacRury continued his remarkable run of form with another wonder-show, his third in a row, to take the senior prize.

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Having galloped to glory in the Berneray 10k last weekend and smashing his half marathon personal best in Inverness the week prior to that, he continued his blistering race pace in Hosta.

Completing six long laps of the course in Hosta in a speedy 41:21, Willie was the main man.

In the under-17 boys race spectators were treated to a thrilling head to head between SRAC’s Kyle Munro and NUAAC’s Paul Morrison. As always, Kyle remained strong throughout the race and claimed silver only 40 seconds behind Paul, who had a great run.

Next up were the U17 girls who squeezed in a quick warm up before setting out to complete three long laps of the course.

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Joanna Gillies claimed the gold with a speedy time of 25.13 with training buddy, Sophie Graham, winning the Silver. Both girls agreed that this was a challenging race but they enjoyed running on different terrain.

Kyla Macmurdo from Back was the star of the U9 Girls’ race and cruised across the finish line to claim first place. There were impressive runs from the boys as well, with Iain Matheson finishing second and Logan Spence just behind in third place in a field of 21 young runners.

Further success followed in the U11 Boys’ race as Cameron Macleod took silver and Charlie Morrison the Bronze. The lads were only four-seconds apart and placed very well in yet another large field. The U11 Girls’ race saw Amy Macmillan win Gold and Hannah Maciver the silver. Ellen Macmurdo was fifth.

See this week’s Gazette to read the rest of the report. On sale now.