Scottish National XC 2026

Callander House, Falkirk Saturday 21 February 2026

The forecast was just about proven wrong for this year’s National XC at Callander House, with the going soft but only seriously muddy in a few areas of the 10k course, and the rain holding off till midway through the last race of the day, the senior men’s event. A smaller than usual turnout from Glenpark this year was further hampered by the loss of several top runners but in the event, both the senior teams had great results on the day with strong performances across the board from those in the famous light blue vest.

The ladies senior race was particularly exciting this year with the appearance of world and Olympic medalist Laura Muir taking on the distance for the first time – in fact, the longest race of her career as a professional athlete. Laura drew on her vast experience to win gold, seeing off the spirited challenge of world class mountain runner Scout Adkin to win by 13 seconds in 35 minutes. Third place went to Naomi Lang in 35:41, the three ladies having an amazing battle over the course of the race, and it was brilliant to be there to see this level of performance. The senior men’s race was won for the fourth time by Jamie Crowe in 30:41, just ahead of Inverclyde’s Ben Potrykus (30:55) and Garscube’s Finlay Ross-Davie in (31:02). Jamie is now in the record books like men such as Nat Muir (eight) and Bobby Quinn (four) in terms of Senior Wins.

Greenock Senior Ladies

The ladies had an outstanding team performance this year, finishing in 16th overall – the highest position the senior ladies have managed at the Nationals. Run of the day was once again from Ashley Anderson, bringing her fine club and road form to the mud and trails, and the only Greenock lady to go under 50 minutes with a brilliant run of 45:39. There was a bit of a club battle in the early stages of the race, with Lorna Mitchell, Viki Smith and Lynne Harrison all running well within touching distance of each other for the first lap, but as the race progressed the effort began to tell and Mitchell pulled away from Smith to finish in 50:20. Smith also showed her experience on the surface, finishing ahead of Harrison (51:29) in a time of (50:46) – this group of ladies also finishing 13th, 14th and 15th in the v50 category. The next team member home was Heather Lafferty, running really well for (52:36) and going over as fifth counting member and ahead of the returning Marian Monk in 53:50, closing out the counting finishers.

Clare Leung (54:12), Sarah Jane Whalen (1.00.57), Elaine Medinelli (1.06:22), Stephanie Halden (running her first ever XC) (1:11:29) and Charlotte McKay (1:14:07) made up the Harriers Ladies on the day.

• A special shout out to Greenock’s Evie Harrison, running for Glasgow University at the National but picking up her first national medal as third counter for GU Team bronze.

Greenock Senior Men

Top of the pack for the Harriers Men was Andy McCall, whose time of (36:19) put him as the only Harrier to get in among the top 100 runners, in position 100 from 578 senior men. McCall set off hard not knowing how his suffering from a cold would affect his run, and he managed a solid first lap through to mile three but then started to suffer. Lewis Khan was running well and closing McCall, catching going up every climb but McCall would open a gap big enough on the runnable sections to eventually hold him off on the final lap, going over ahead of Khan by just nine seconds. Lewis had an absolute belter of a run, pacing it really well on a terrain he thrives on.

Oliver Reilly was next home for the harriers in (39:48), staying ahead of a decent battle between Daniel Doherty (39:56) and John Hampsey (40:13), the two men working well together for first 2 laps. Doherty then pushed the pace and managed to create a gap and kicked to the finish, picking off a few rival vests as he went. Final counting finisher came after a superb run from Andrew McKenzie, also running the National for the first time and pushing himself past Colin McKnight (44:26) and Stephen Harrison (45:13) in the middle section of the race, McKenzie held his pace for a brilliant finish in (43:34). A special mention goes to Vice Captain Daniel Doherty, this performance marked the seventh time he has been a counting finisher in the ten years he has represented the club at this level.

Gerry Gallacher (53:31) and our resident videographer Ced Chesterman (57:45) completed the Harriers senior men’s representation.

Juniors