The school has been improving in its performance at this event since first entering 4 years ago. On that day we had 1 top 20 across all the race, last year we had 6 and this year we had an incredible 15 top 20 finishers. The school has been going from strength to strength in athletics and cross country, this event was proof of our athletes performing to a higher level.
There was some stand out performances from the school. Robaidh Whyte finishing 7th and Patrick In 16th in the S1 Race. Shona Carey 12th and Beth Murray 21st in the S1 Girls race. In the S2s Calum Stewart improved his finishing place by a brilliant 14 places from last year to finish in 9th with Lewis Conley 12th, Findlay 15th and backed up by Alexander, Gilles and James the boys finished 4th team. In the S3 race and overall performance of the day came from Daniel Moran who won the race!!! Daniel showed great tactical awareness and determination to win the gold medal and the schools first ever medalist at this event. Daniel was 6 seconds down on the leader after the first lap but having worked his way through the field he got on to the shoulder of the Academy pupil and went straight past him and opened up a sizeable gap towards the finish. He was greeted by huge cheers from the SGG crowd going into the last 200m! Daniel was backed up with excellent runs from the other S3 boys, all finishing in the top 30! Benjamin proved again he is much fitter than last year by finishing 15th, last year he was in the 40s. Andrew Carey who was representing the school for the first time had a great debut in 18th position. Josh was 22nd and Callum Douglas 28th. Due to their exceptional team performance the boys finished 2nd team overall and the schools first ever team medals.
Amy Craig who had just seen Daniel win the S3 boys race went next and was running in a combined S4 and S5/6 race. Amy who has improved her endurance year on year was looking to go better than her 9th place in 2015. She certainly did that, Amy finished in 2nd position! Amy had started aggressively going with the pace, she settled down into the 2nd lap and had enough at the finish to hold off the challenge from two athletes. Two individual medals for SGG! Amy also went on to represent her running club the next day at the Scottish National championships, a tough weekend for her but well worth it! Sarah Robertson who competed in the same race as Amy and who was not long back from injury finished a credible 8th in the S5/6 race. Sarah will be looking to move further up the field next year once she returns to full training.
Not to be outdone by the S3 boys, the S4 boys had a point to prove in the team race. The boys had been so close to medals the last two years but were going into this race much fitter than before. Jacob Connelly in his first Glasgow Schools Cross Country ran fantastically well to finish 4th and narrowly behind 3rd position. I have no doubt that he will be even closer next year. Luc Galanti finished in 8th, Lewis Grimmer 9th and Conall Whyte 10th. This was a fantastic team performance and resulted in the boys like the S3s, coming away with silver medals!
What a memorable day for all participants and for the school. Two individual medals, two team medals, 15 top 20 placings and throughout the field nothing but effort and great performances. Well done to all pupils on your performance at these championships, you have set the bar even higher than before.
On to next year now.
