Cross-Country Season Report 2025-2026
The cross-country year started with our Monday, Tuesday and Thursday Runs. All pupils at Belhaven in Forms 1-3 run 3k once a week, with those in Forms 4-8 running 2k. The pupils in the lower age group may attempt a longer distance if they should wish, and happily, the majority of these in fact do.
In the autumn and summer terms, Mr. Curry took his running club out of school to go down into Dunbar, to the beach at Belhaven Bay and to the woods at John Muir Country Park. We ran a variety of courses around the area, up to 5 miles across all terrains from beach to hills to woodland and alongside traffic.
At Christmas we held our annual Christmas Games which involved the final Thursday Run of the year followed by competitive Christmas pudding-and-spoon races at speed dressed as various levels of ridiculous. For this first year the race actually carried some patrol points, the Wolves pipping the Owls in a run-off after a dead-heat in the race proper.
Mr. Curry also began to take pupils down to the Lochend Woods Parkrun in order to give some genuine live-event experience against adults. Our pupils as ever did themselves, Monty finishing 3rd, Finlay T. 8th and Toby 14th. From a field of almost 100.
We entered a new event in January, at Strathallan. What an interesting experience it was. Unusually, there were no team events, and the boys and girls ran in the same race against each other. We started our afternoon with the U9 race, Harris, Rory and Rufus coming in positions 9th, 10th and 11th and Jasper in 22nd of the 76 runners, while our leading ladies were Iris, Tessa and Beatrice.
The course is lovely on Strath’s home turf, and up next on it were the U11s. Finlay T. claimed 5th position and Brixton 17th after Monty’s unfortunate fall whilst leading. Annie led the girls home in 21st, with Flora in 39th and Jemima 60th of the massive field of 11p runners.
The U13s were up last and Patrick gained a well-deserved bronze medal of 94 runners, a superb run. Xander and Wilbur in 7th and 8th proved our position as the strongest boys' team in this event while the girls also did well, Anastasia coming in 23rd position – and second girl home, Clemmie 33rd and Rose 41st. It was fun to try a new course, and to come away with two medals for Patrick and Anastasia made it all the sweeter. Well done to all of our runners, who did their school proud today.
The Belhaven Individual XC was our next event. Every year all pupils run traditional ‘Belhaven Cross-Country’ course, a 2.1km dash around the school grounds. This year was a good year in so many ways; larger numbers of pupils in the school making for a competitive race and older pupils giving it their all in their last ever run at the school. The weather was treacherous this year, with mud and rain making it for a slippy experience all round.
It was, however, a junior who won the event, as Monty S. won the event in 7m 23s; a very good time in comparison with previous years and an improvement on his winning time from last year. He just edged Patrick, our first senior, into second by ten metres and then Xander and Wilbur. Anastasia was the first female in ninth position, just ahead of Emily (15th and Clemmie (17th). Annie was our first junior female in 24th.
The Owls won the event overall, with the Woodpeckers second, just pipping the Lions and the Wolves a distant fourth this year. Well done to every pupil for participating, especially those to whom running does not come easily
The Longridge XC Years 1-4 was another novelty for us, as we had not previously entered pre-prep-age pupils for any competitive sport. There were no team trophies, but in each race the top three runners received a medal, and every finisher received a certificate. William C. won the Form 8 Boys’ race, Scout was second in the Form 7 Girls’ race and Rory Th. was third in the Form 6 Boys’ race, which was an outstanding return for the first running of this event.
All pupils had a fantastic day out in the Berwick sunshine and what a first experience for the pre-prep! Well done to everyone.
The Belhaven Cross-Country Championships, the main event on the Scottish XC independent school circuit and organised by Belhaven Hill, is in its 40th year and we had to take a last-minute decision to reroute the start/finish due to overnight flooding in the area. Starting now 300m away at Seafield Pond, we run out towards J.M.C.P. in varying degrees of length; 2.5 k for the U9s, 3.0 k the U11s and 3.5 k the U13s. The Belhaven staff team performed wonders in late February.
In the U-9 race Harris A. and Rory T. of Belhaven Hill ran impressive races in finishing 5th and 8th individually, to take their team to victory while Belhaven came in third position. Tilly L. of St. Mary’s, perhaps the standout athlete of the day, won the U13 girls’ event in a record time.
The U-9 girls’ and U-13 boys’ races were up next, St. Mary’s and The Edinburgh Academy winning these, with Belhaven coming in fourth and second respectively of the fifteen teams. Patrick T. produced a notable performance for Belhaven, coming in fifth position in the U-13 boys, despite being a year young for the race.
The final pair of races was the U-11s, won by St. Mary’s and Lathallan, with Belhaven in second position in both races. Brixton O. (9th) and Annie F. (7th) individually did themselves proud for the host school.
In a tight competition, Belhaven was the only school of the eighteen taking part which finished in the top four positions in every one of the six team races The event itself was a huge success, with 364 runners from participating schools ranging from Melrose in the southwest nearly to Aberdeen, a 150-mile spread. It is always a very special day in the prep schools’ calendar, and we are proud to continue to host the event.
Next up was the Merchiston XC, a short but fun relay event and this week we took a record 36 pupils. The teams of U9 boys ran the three 1 km legs impressively; Harris, in particular, caught the eye with a storming run as we finished in 5th position. Archie and Rory also did themselves proud, as did our B-team, which finished in 11th of 18 teams. In the same category, our U9 girls picked themselves up well after Tessa’s unfortunate fall.
We had three teams of U11 boys and they performed magnificently over the 3.7 km race, finishing in 2nd, 9th and 16th positions out of 24 teams. Finlay and Brixton ran well but the star of the race was Monty, collecting the baton in fourth and finishing in second, a whisker off first place at the finish. The U11 girls also ran well, with Annie catching the eye as they finished in 7th position.
In the U13 races our girls gave all they had and finished in the healthy positions of 5th and 6th of the 18 teams; Emily, Sophia and Anastasia showing the excellent runners they are becoming while Blanche, Maggie and Clemmie would have looked equally at home in the ‘A’ team. The U13 boys fielded three teams of three and our teams all finished in 3rd, 7th and 10th positions, our ‘A’ team just nine seconds off the lead team with Xander running a particularly strong leg and being probably our stand-out runner of the day.
So, a second and third placing plus a string of other high finishes from this competition, shows just how strong cross-country running is at the school at present. Well done to everyone, especially the brilliant U11 and U13 boys.
Late spring term saw the annual running by Belhaven Hill of the local Lochend Woods Parkrun. The idea behind the event is to encourage fitness and runners of any age and ability run or walk around 5K courses all over the country, and indeed all over the world. All courses are exactly 5K in length and are manned by volunteers every Saturday morning. All Form One pupils took part.
Wilbur B. came home first of the Belhaven contingent today, in 3rd position in a superb time of 21m 37s in overcast, but good conditions. Oscar (8th), Tristan (13th) and Geordie (15th) came in soon after others dotted down through the field under 40 minutes. Clemmie was our first female home in 26m 04s, and third female overall. It was so heartening to see parents from the six of the families of the 26 pupils also running the distance with their children today, plus many more watching and cheering on from the side. Well done to all of Form One for pushing yourselves today in your first ever externally organised run – your attitude today was excellent.
The Patrol Cross-Country Relay in January has become a wonderful event which improves with every running, and includes every single (on-games) pupil in the school. Running the 5.1-mile course from school to the far end of John Muir Country Park, over the seven legs and four teams for each of the four patrols the Owls A-team eventually won in 30m 26s, just 10 seconds outside the course record, with the Lions and Woodpeckers in second and the Wolves in fourth. The Owls were well deserving winners, winning the A-, B- and C-team events.
On the last full day of term Belhaven took eight teams of four to this year’s Longridge XC Yrs 5-8. We entered all eight of the races and performed spectacularly well, winning five out of the eight races and coming second in the other three. There were roughly 60 runners per race.
First up were the U10 boys, and individually, Finlay took second place and overall we were just pipped into second. In the U10 girls it was a similar story as Annie won the event. Jemima showed real grit in pinching two places right on the finishing line. Remarkably, given this excellent showing, we finished only second in the team event, again.
The U11 girls also finished second, losing out in the tightest of runs despite Mary’s 3rd position. We dominated the U11 boys, however, with Monty winning the event by an English country mile. A special note to Brixton for completing almost the entire run in just one trainer, having lost it early on!
The U12 races were a tale of incredible symmetry. We won both team events, and in fact, took gold, silver and bronze positions in both runs, along with 5th as well. Huge congratulations to Patrick, Xander, Santiago and Toby in the boys’ event, and Anastasia, Rose, Blanche and Sophia in the girls’, who claimed those positions in that order. what a year group!
The U13 events were also hugely impressive, as we took team golds in both, with Clemmie (3rd) and Wilbur (1st) well deserving their medals. Wilbur deserves great credit for running on through injury, which flared up during the run.
So we left Longridge with 5 trophies in the team events, and were a whisker away from 3 more, as we took second place. We also won 4 individual gold medals, 4 silvers and 4 bronzes in addition, which is testament to the ability of this group of runners and a great way to finish off a fantastic running season.
Very well done to everyone indeed after a brilliant term’s running.
In April Monty, Coco, Annie and Anastasia entered the Scottish Schools’ Athletics Association Primary Schools’ Cross-Country Championships and all fared extremely well from a wide field of runners.
The final running-related event of the year was the Belhaven Run Records’ Attempt in May. This is the time of year when pupils are the most focused on achieving well at the Belhaven Run. The ground is hard, they are well-rested due to the more leisurely pace of cricket when compared with other sports and for many of them, this is their last ever chance to get their personal best. The crop of 2026 certainly did not disappoint.
Thirteen runners in Forms 4 and 5 ran the 3k route and many gained their personal bests. A special mention should go to Harris and Alfie S. in Form 5, who finished in the amazing time of 12m 12s and 12m 13s. I am sure that we will see these two runners on the sub-12-minute board next year. Form 3 did not disappoint, with Brixton, Joseph and Archie B. running just outside the 12-minute mark for the three laps but, as ever, the gong was taken by Monty S., who beat not only his own best of 10m 39s, but also the F3 record of 11m 05s, and in posting a time of 10m 32s, is just ten seconds behind the all-time Run Record time for all years.
We saw an outstanding run in F2 from Xander L. who came home in 10m 54s – the fourth fastest runner we have had around the course. There promises to be more from him next year as he and Patrick T., who was ahead of Xander but pulled up, push each other to ever greater levels of achievement. In Form 1 we saw a host of great effort and results, as Wilbur, Oscar, Tristan and Rodrigue all went under 12 minutes, the latter three for the first time (and Tristan by just one second!).
A brilliant display of guts and skill. It has been a great year for running – the best in my eighteen years here. Well done to all who participated.
So another great year of running at Belhaven, packed with individual and team successes. Runners of the year go to Patrick and Anastasia in the seniors and Monty and Annie in the juniors, with the awards for effort and drive to improve going to Imogen in the seniors and Harris in the juniors. Rory Th. and Beatrice took the inaugural awards in the pre-prep.
What a year!
