Medals at the Masters

Lindsays Scottish Athletics Masters XC Championships
Tollcross Park, Glasgow Saturday 31st January 2026

Six runners from Greenock Glenpark Harriers made the journey up to the East End of Glasgow for this year’s Lindsay’s Scottish Masters Cross Country Event, another challenging but popular event in the Scottish XC Season. In a highly competitive field of over 400 runners, two of the Glenpark contingent had outstanding performances on the day, scooping national gold and silver in their respective age categories. Conditions were perfect for cross country running with the only problem a stiff headwind in the upper sections of the course. Perfect underfoot with only a few muddy sections, the course was a 2 kilometre loop with a couple of punishing climbs before a decent downhill stretch into the finish. Ladies ran 6k over three laps and gents went out for four laps / 8k.

In the ladies race, the sole female Harrier was Jill Aikman, who did extremely well to finish in the top 100 from 197 ladies, her time of 29m26s just getting her into the top ten in the F50 age category. This was on top of Jill having done Greenock parkrun in the morning, so her effort was all the more impressive!

Going out in the men’s M45 race, Greenock’s Neil Lafferty continues to show his ability at National Level. After last week’s veteran relay at Strathclyde Park where he finished second in his leg and gained a team bronze, Neil followed up with a brilliant run of 27m40s for national Gold, seventeen seconds ahead of Ross Houston of Central Athletics Club in second place; Neil’s time also putting him in 5th place overall.

Also on the podium on the day was Michael McLoone for the M60 race. Michael has been running extremely well recently and brought this form into the race, finishing in 33m13s to take the silver medal in a close finish with Grant Matheson (33:19), holding off the Falkirk man in the closing stretch for the deserved medal.

The other Greenock runners on the day had some mixed fortunes, with the in-form Harrier Steven Campbell slightly disappointed with his 13th M50 placing. Steven had gone out hard in the early stages but struggled to keep the pace going in the closing stages, going over the line in 31m49s. Colin McKnight had a great run in 35:23 on a surface he enjoys, and taking a creditable 41st in the M45 category. Final Harrier home for the men’s team was Stephen Harrison, pleased enough to be finishing in 36:05 for 28th place in the M50 category as gets back to racing fitness after recent illness and injury.

Credit to the amazing work done by David McNulty Running Photography for the photos in this report.
Get in touch with David: davidmcnultyrunningphotography@gmail.com