As the Lindsays Scottish Cross Country Season 2015-16 launches, Eilish McColgan, Olympic 3ooom Steeplechase athlete, presented the Lindsays Trophy to last season’s club winners, Edinburgh AC at Meadowbank Stadium last night.

 (L-R) Amanda Woodrow, Edinburgh AC; Ian Beattie, Chief Operating Officer at Lindsays; Eilish McColgan; Andrew Latham, Edinburgh AC

The Lindsays Trophy forms part of the three-year partnership between award winning law firm, Lindsays and scottishathletics which takes in a series of regional and Scottish National events. The agreement also includes Lindsays offering scottishathletics members and clubs an exclusive package of legal services which will result in further investment in the club network.

Edinburgh AC was presented with the Lindsays Trophy having achieved the highest number of finishers at the National XC final at Callander Park earlier this year. The club had 84 runners crossing the finish line including athletes across all the age groups, and male and female racers.  Giffnock North and Central were also in the top three for clubs with the most athletes finishing the race.

Nigel Holl, chief executive of scottishathletics commented: “A remarkable 87 clubs were represented at Falkirk that day which reflects the rising numbers of entries and finishers across all the races throughout the Scottish Cross Country Season. The significant increases year on year highlight the growing popularity of endurance racing and is very encouraging for the development of the sport.”

Lindsays Chief Operating Officer, Ian Beattie added: “We are delighted to be continuing our partnership with scottishathletics to support the Scottish Cross Country Season which reinforces our commitment to the sport.  I look forward to witnessing the on-going success of these events over the season and recognise the importance of the Season for athletes and clubs throughout Scotland.”

Lindsays offer support to Eilish McColgan, three-times British champion and GB international, who is hoping to overcome her recent injury to compete at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Eilish believes that cross country is a fundamental part of athletics. She said: “My first experience of running and the reason I decided to go along to an athletics club was my involvement in the local primary school race – I absolutely loved it. My first ever British Title actually came from cross country as an under 13.”

The first event of the new season is the National XC Relay event which will be held at Cumbernauld on Saturday 24 October 2015. The closing date for entries is Tuesday 6 October.