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For the IAAF, Doug Gillon of ‘The Herald’ wrote:

“Scottish Cross-Country championships first held 122-years-ago

In Lanarkshire the “Red-hose” (red stockings) cross-country race, had begun more than 20 years earlier. The county in the West of Scotland has a long and proud sports tradition. King William the Lion of Scotland presented the Lanark Silver Bell for a horse race there in the twelfth century. It’s Britain’s oldest sports trophy, and the race course on which it was staged (the Silver Bell is still contested) was where the very first Scottish cross-country championship was held, 122 years ago this week. The 10-mile (16,000 metres) race, over heavy grassland, was won by a stonemason.

Also in Lanarkshire, the very first cross-country international was staged in 1903. It was held on Hamilton racecourse, and the adjacent grounds of the palace of the Duke of Hamilton. It was contested by Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales, and was won by England’s Alf Shrubb. France entered in 1907, and it was from these beginnings that the IAAF event first emerged in 1973.

World Cross-Country returns to Scotland

This is the twelfth time the international championship has been held in Scotland, but only the second in the IAAF era. This is the 30th anniversary of the last IAAF World Cross in Scotland (in Glasgow) where Ireland’s John Treacy won. It is returning to Edinburgh 96 years to the day since Frenchman Jean Bouin won there.

Bouin was the first non-English winner of the championships, and first to win three in succession (1911-1913). He and the Finn, Johannes Kolehmainen, were respectively Olympic 5000m silver and gold medallists in Stockholm, first time the distance had been run under 15 minutes. The Frenchman also took the World 6-mile and 10,000m records from Shrubb. Sadly, Jean Bouin, the sport’s first great multiple international champion was killed in World War I.

The first cross-country handicap ever staged in Scotland, was in December 1885, over four miles from the Sheepshead tavern in Duddingston. It lies on the banks of one of three lochs within the royal park.

Ethiopian legend Kenenisa Bekele has already won three times over Sunday’s course, for it has hosted the Great Edinburgh International in recent years, so the course is tried and tested. It includes Haggis Knowe (or Haggis Hill, so named because it’s shaped like the traditional Scottish dish) which also featured in the 2003 European Cross-Country Championship and World Mountain Running Trophy in 1995.

But this remains a sport for everyone. A ‘Welcome the World’ 5km race round the park is open to everyone. Afterwards they can watch the toughest race on earth for free.”

The 2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships took place on March 30, 2008. The races were held at the Holyrood Park in Edinburgh, Scotland. Four races took place, one for men, women, junior men and junior women respectively. All races encompassed both individual and team competition. This was the year in which Kenenisa Bekele became the first athlete in World Cross history to win six individual long course titles, breaking his tie with John Ngugi and Paul Tergat who had each won five.

                                                                                              The winner, Kenenisa Bekele

For the IAAF, David Powell wrote: 

“In a remarkable triumph over adversity and the spirited endeavours of defending champion Zersenay Tadese, Kenenisa Bekele cleared a series of obstacles to win a record sixth Senior Men’s classic distance title – and US$30,000 – at the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships, at Holyrood Park, today. (Although Kenya won the team title).

Bekele overcame, in turn, a missed flight, overnight stomach troubles, a dislodged shoe early in the 12km race, and Tadese’s determined mid-race surges, to regain the crown he had won in five successive years from 2002 to 2006. Today’s victory takes his record number of individual World Cross Country titles to 12 (6 Long Course, 5 five Short Course, 1 Junior).

After increasing his total number of World Cross Country gold medals to 16 (including 4 team golds) and his record total count to 27 (16 gold, 9 silver, 2 bronze), Bekele acknowledged that his six classic victories might be the statistic that stands above all the others. Until today, the 25-year-old Bekele had shared a record five classic distance triumphs with Kenyans John Ngugi and Paul Tergat.

Having failed to finish in Mombasa last year, suffering stomach problems in the heat and humidity, Bekele fought back from the troubles thrown at him here to pull clear in the eleventh kilometre. In the end, it proved a comfortable victory over runner-up Leonard Patrick Komon, from Kenya, and Tadese, whose valiant title defence was rewarded with the bronze medal.

“As far as the sixth Long Course win is concerned, I tried to accomplish it last year but, because of the weather, I was not able to do it,” Bekele said. “This has a very high honour in my life. I have won the double five times but I think this compares to that. However, I leave the judging to those of you in the media.”

It was in the third kilometre that Bekele’s shoe was caught from behind, and worked loose, as the field bunched taking a bend. From his place near the front, he dropped way down the field as he stopped to secure it. “My shoe did not fall completely off but I had to stop to undo it and put it back on, so it was as if it fell off because of the effort needed to put it back on,” he said It was the first time, he added, such a misfortune had befallen him.

Having secured his shoe, Bekele worked his way back up the field and, before long, was in the leading group. When Tadese picked up the pace in the seventh kilometre, Bekele was well placed to respond.  Dictating from the front, Tadese threw in several bursts, by the end of which he and Bekele had opened a small gap on the last challenging Kenyans, Komon and Joseph Ebuya.

A brief relaxation of pace allowed Komon and Ebuya to close up but, with four kilometres to run, the front four were well clear. With Tadese at the head, and the Kenyan pair side-by-side behind him, Bekele sat at the back before seizing his moment. Of his recovery from his near shoe disaster, he said: “It was near the beginning and I knew it would make the competition difficult because it is not easy to catch up after losing your shoe.

“I knew it would make the rest of the race tough. After the shoe came off I began to think a great deal about what I had to overcome and I had to focus a great deal on my race. If I had tried immediately to catch up it may have affected the rest of my race but instead I controlled my pace.”

Bekele had arrived later than planned in Edinburgh the day before the race. He missed his flight connection at London Heathrow after a delay to his original Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa left him with only 30 minutes to connect in London. His delay was unrelated to the widely-publicised teething problems at Heathrow’s new Terminal 5.

Explaining how stomach trouble almost cost him dearly again, as it had last year, Bekele said: “The day before yesterday, as I was flying in from Ethiopia, there was a delay and I spent the night in London and arrived here yesterday about midday. I had eaten breakfast there before I left and, after it, I didn’t feel well. I then had lunch and dinner here and at night I didn’t feel well. I had to get up three or four times in the night to go to the bathroom and I wasn’t feeling good.”

Tadese said that he was happy with his run – “a bronze medal for my country is still important to me” – while Komon made a big impression in his first year out of the junior ranks. Aged 20, he led Kenya to a third successive team triumph (39 points) with Ethiopia second (105) and Qatar third (144).”

For the IAAF, Matthew Brown wrote:  

“Tirunesh Dibaba completed part three of what was not only a great day for Ethiopia but a great day for the Dibaba family this afternoon as she reclaimed her World Cross Country crown, which comes with a US$30,000 prize, in thrilling style. (Ethiopia won the team title.)

Dibaba’s victory over the 8km race means she joins USA’s Lynn Jennings and her cousin, Derartu Tulu, as a winner of three long course titles following her previous victories in 2005 and 2006. With her short course win in 2005 and the junior title in 2004, she now joins Grete Waitz of Norway with five individual golds from these championships, and Worknesh Kidane as a winner of eight individual medals.

Together with all her team titles, Dibaba has now won 14 World Cross Country golds altogether, more than any other athlete. And she’s still only 22.

Taking inspiration from her younger sister Genzebe, the 17-year-old who won the junior race just an hour earlier, Dibaba shrugged off any doubts about her fitness in the final 400m of a gruelling race to leap from fourth to first on the craggy hillside of Haggis Knowe, before unleashing her trademark finishing kick that brought her home over the soggy mud in 25:10, five seconds ahead of her teammate Mestawet Tufa.

Linet Masai, the 2007 junior champion from Kenya, claimed the bronze in 25:18 but with Ethiopians in sixth (Gelete Burka) and ninth (Meselech Melkamu), it was the women in green and yellow who claimed the senior women’s team title for the seventh consecutive time and the ninth time in the last 10 years. The Kenyan team won silver (22pts) and Australia (84pts) secured team bronze.

For Dibaba it was not only the team victory which mattered, however, not even the personal triumph, but her part in a family affair that goes back to 1995 when Tulu won the first of her World Cross crowns.

“I’m aware that my aunt has won this race three times so I am very happy to have done the same thing,” said a smiling, if mud-splattered, Dibaba afterwards. “And my younger sister was first earlier today so it was partly to match her that I dug in and put everything I had into the win.”

Indeed, the manner of Dibaba’s victory was little short of remarkable. With less than half a lap to go she looked, not only to have lost the race, but to be out of the medals, her much publicised stomach problems seemingly afflicting her again.

But summoning some unknown reserves of strength she clawed past Masai and pulled herself back into touch with Tufa and Gelete Burka before striking for gold.

“I felt a stitch in the middle of the race and that’s when I fell back,” she admitted afterwards. “But I recovered from that and was able to move to the front.”

It was the first time in the entire race that she had been so prominent as in the early stages she was content to stalk the leaders. Surprisingly, the first to show were from the host nation as Liz and Hayley Yelling moved swiftly to the front in the first lap, apparently keen to take what little chance they had to fly the flag for Britain.

Amy Hastings of the USA was also in evidence early on but large clutches of Kenyans and Ethiopians were never far away. Burka, in a grey hat and long black sleaves, looked comfortable just behind the leaders, as did Kenya’s Priscah Cherono (formerly Jeleting), the 2006 silver medallist.

By the end of the second lap it was these two plus Tufa who led a long line of athletes past the rain-drenched crowd as the Britons and Americans began to struggle. But it was on the next circuit, the third, and the first to include the course’s one testing incline that the race really began.

Burka, a winner of the Edinburgh IAAF Permit race on this course for the last years, moved to the front. “On Sunday, I will use the experience I have on this course,” she said a few days ago. And that’s what she appeared to be doing as she led a group of nine or 10 plus Australia’s Benita Johnson, a former champion, who was hanging on the back.

It was at this stage that Masai first began to show and she, Tufa and Burka moved away at the end of the penultimate lap with Dibaba, clearly visible in her long white sleeves, chasing hard about five metres behind.

From then on it was all about these four as they battled out a stirring last lap in which the medals were in doubt until the very last bend of the twisting course.

First Burka made her move, pulling Tufa with her as Masai dropped back allowing Dibaba to catch up. These two appeared be set for a battle for bronze as Burka stretched her lead, opening a 20 metre gap on Tufa that looked decisive.

But Tufa wasn’t finished and as the runners negotiated the penultimate tight bend in front of the grandstand she began to make up the ground. Behind her, Dibaba was dragging Masai back into the reckoning and by the time they hit the base of the hill for the last time there were only 10 metres separating the four.

Burka had clearly pushed too hard too early as she blew up on the foothills of the Haggis Knowe, destined to finish sixth, 25 seconds behind Dibaba. In contrast, Dibaba was suddenly revived and the World 10,000m champion skipped past her teammate, drove beyond Tufa, crested the top of the hill and unleashed her finishing spurt.

“Tirunesh has better finishing speed than me, but I am happy with my second place,” said the resigned Tufa afterwards.

“Our victory brings us great joy today,” said Dibaba. “We’ve been preparing for this for a long time. Cross country is very important to us. We wanted to bring a strong team and do very well here.”

She was talking about her country. But it equally applies to the family clan.”

                                                                                            The ascent of Haggis Knowe

Colin Youngson added: “Since (after 1987) Scotland was no longer allowed to compete as a separate country, only two Scots seem to have represented GB in this World Cross. Andrew Lemoncello was in the Senior Men’s event, racing over 12 km, and finished fourth counter in 78^th place and his team finished tenth. (165 finished; and 12 dropped out).

In the Senior Women’s race, racing over 8 km, Laura Kenney was third counter in 38^th place and her team finished sixth. (90 finished and one dropped out).

On a personal note, spectating was wonderful. The weather was kind and the atmosphere exciting. Holyrood Park was a superbly scenic venue, and the course a testing mixture of flat, grassy going, twists and turns, and a really tough uphill and downhill section towards the end of the lap. Sadists enjoyed watching even champion runners struggling up Haggis Knowe, then flailing down the treacherous descent.

We all scrambled to the finishing straight and were privileged to see Kenenisa Bekele (a real crowd favourite) sprinting elegantly to victory. Tirunesh Dibaba was equally impressive.

The most enthusiastic (noisiest) section of the crowd was the Ethiopian contingent. I noted that the legendary Olympic gold medallist (for the 5000m/10,000m double at the 1980 Moscow Games), Miruts Yifter (The Shifter) was there, and his minders kindly permitted me to obtain his autograph.”

Apparently, in early 1903, the Welsh, Irish and Scottish Cross-Country Associations were enthusiastic about organising an International race; but England was not keen. Eventually, however, England was persuaded to “send twelve competitors plus the three Area Presidents and the Hon Secretary of the Union to Hamilton Racecourse, Glasgow.”   

The Glasgow Herald noted:

“An interesting departure in international sport will be witnessed at Hamilton Palace Grounds on Saturday, when the first of what we hope will be a long and brilliant series of contests between the cross-country elect of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales takes place”.

Runners and officials at the first international in 1903

The subsequent report about the race, which took place on 28th March 1903 (over a distance of 8 and a half miles) was as follows:

“Describing the first International cross-country championship, decided at Hamilton Park on Saturday, is an easy task indeed. It was simply a case of Alfred Shrubb, the Londoner and national champion of England for the last three seasons, being first and the rest nowhere. Equally so might the quest for country championship honours be described, for England furnished six men in the first seven home, and the “predominant partner” finished many points ahead of Ireland, who provided the second-best team; while Scotland came third and Wales were the whippers in. But regarding the race, run, by the way, in the most miserable weather (heavy rain), it was as good as over after the first two miles had been run. The disappointment of the race, from a Scottish point of view, was the poor running of the Anglo-Scot, Tom Johnston, of the Highgate Harriers. He could only finish 34^th, and the medal to the first Scot home was deservedly won by James Crosbie (10^th). A word of praise is due, however, to John Ranken (14^th), who did not disgrace his dark blue jersey. But it was Shrubb’s race, and his alone. The present was his first visit to Scotland as a harrier – a competitor over the country. He has been seen here in flat-racing events, but on Saturday he showed us his wonderful pace at cross-country work. He is not the best of fencers, indeed, compared to John Daly (Ireland, who finished third), he was a poor hurdler; but he is a marvellous stayer. This has been a wonderful season for him. As well as winning the Southern Championship, he has carried off the Sussex Championship, the English National race, and a French international event, decided on the outskirts of Paris a week back.” (41 finished the arduous course; four did not.)

Glasgow Herald reports were often expressed in such tones: in this case, effusive and complimentary about Alf Shrubb; unsympathetically critical about most of the Scottish competitors!

James Crosbie ran for Larkhall  John Ranken (Watsonians CCC) became Scottish cross-country champion in 1904 and 1905.

In his Centenary History of the SCCU (1890-1990), Colin Shields noted that the race took place, not on Hamilton Racecourse, “but in the adjacent grounds of the Duke of Hamilton’s Palace. The race started and finished in front of the grandstand and, after 300 yards of running over the racecourse turf, the runners exited to the ducal grounds, where they covered four 2-mile laps before returning to complete the course in the racecourse finishing straight.”

“There was much praise for Shrubb, who was described as ‘a running machine who trained as hard in winter as he did in summer’; and critics went on to say that ‘until Scots runners started training as systematically as their English rivals and became more devoted to the drudgery of winter training, they would meet with little success in international competition.’

“The race was so successful that discussions on the train journey back from Hamilton to Glasgow afterwards led to an understanding that a similar race would be held the following year at Haydock Park, Lancashire, where the International Cross Country Union (ICCU) was established.”

The basic details of the race are all above but says nothing about the quality of the field in 1912.   For instance it was the second of three gold medals for the event won by Jean Bouin of France who was to lose his life just two years later in the first year of the 1914-18 war.   The top Scot – GCL Wallach who was fourth was one of the best runners the country has produced, Tom Jack was also part of the team, Scotland also had two of the three Hughes brothers running.      The Scottish team (88 pts) was second to England (41 pts) and in front of Ireland who were third (110 pts).   Before looking at the actual race, the question was about why they were being held in Edinburgh.   Colin Shiels explains:   “Edinburgh hosted the International championship race, the previous two times it had been held in Scotland being in the West, but the representatives of the competing countries had expressed strong desires to see the beauties of Scotland’s capital.   The organisers acquiesced and chose Saughton Park, the venue of the sports programme of the Scottish National Exhibition held in Edinburgh four years earlier.   Early in March, just three weeks before the event took place, the Glasgow Herald commented ‘It is not generally known that the ICCU championships will be held in Edinburgh on March 30th.   Cross-country running has generally a firmer hold in Glasgow and the West of Scotland but in other respects there could not be a more delightful venue for the race.   The trail will probably embrace the Corstorphine hills though that is a matter of detail still to be decided by the Scottish Union at an early date.”   

The trail we are told covered one mile round the track before leaving the track to go over 5 laps of rough cart track and three miles of grassland.   Scotland’s six counting runners all finished within the first 22 for the team to secure second place but it was a disappointing run for Tom Jack whose last for Scotland it would be.   He had some consolation when just a matter of weeks later he won the track 10 miles championship for the seventh time in nine years.   The race report in ‘The Scottish Referee’ read –

The result of the individual race, taken from wikipediea :

The race went well and the Scottish team once again brought home medals for the country to celebrate.   Wallach (pictured below) was the coming man who would run in this event four times before the War and five time after it with best performances of second in 1914. third in 1911 and fourth in 1912 and 1922.   He was first Scot home eight times.   Bouin’s death in September was a real tragedy – he had run in the international in Scotland in 1907 and again in 1912 but his record in these races was magnificent – three first places (1911, 1912 and 1913), silver in 1909, and a silver team medal in 1913,    Equally good on the track he had a silver at the 1912 Olympic Games in Paris – it could be said that the Scots saw him at his best in 1912.

The first official cross-country championship had been held in Scotland in 1903 and a mere three years later it was back – Hamilton in 1937.   Only one of the Scottish team that day would be known to most Scottish athletics aficionados.   Tom Jack from Edinburgh who in the course of his career would win the cross-country championship of Scotland three times, run in the international 5 times and win the ten miles title six times, the four miles once and have numerous medals of all colours also in his trophy collection.   For the race description we go to Colin Shields’s book “Whatever the Weather” (an excellent book, the go-to book for all serious historians) who describes it thus:

“The international race was held at Scotstoun Showground over a four lap 10 mile course for the benefit of the 2000 spectators who attended the event.   Newly crowned National Champion Tom Jack finished fifth over a tough course which included fences and water jumps on each lap in a fast run race, won by A Underwood (England) in 54 min 24.6 seconds.   Jack split the English team , finishing less than a minute behind the winner, and the entire Scottish team finished inside the first 18 home to take the second place, behind England and finish well clear of Ireland and France, who made their first appearance in the race.”      

The Glasgow Herald had a longer report with all the places recorded.

Follow the link above and read more about Tom Jack for whom this was the first of five cross-country international appearance – a good all round endurance runner from all distances from one mile upwards.   

When the International Cross Country Championships came to Hamilton again in 1960, it was again only men, and the competing nations had dropped from ten to eight: Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales, France, Belgium, Spain and Morocco – the last being the first African country to take part and they finished fourth team.   The Scottish team was chosen from the National Cross-Country championship where Graham Everett (Shettleston), won after a torrid duel with Alastair Wood (Shettleston), after whom came Andy Brown (Motherwell YMCA), Joe Connolly, R Irving (both Bellahouston) and E Sinclair (Springburn).    The race was run over the well-known Hamilton Park course which was to be used for the international.   

Most Scottish papers mentioned the event in passing and agreed with the Aberdeen Evening Express which said 

Of the International, Colin Shields has this to say: “Alastair Wood led the Scots team home to fifth place – one place better than the previous year and, more importantly, with 62 points fewer on the scoreboard.   Wood finished seventh, with Everett 22 and Bruce Tulloh, the British 3 mile record holder, taking advantage of his Scots parentage to turn out for Scotland and finish twenty third in a race won by A Rhadi, the Moroccan who was to win the Olympic Games Marathon Silver Medal in Rome six months later.”

Faint praise there from Colin but better than the out and out criticism of some of the previous Scottish teams in the international.    The Glasgow Herald report on the race was as below.

How did the result measure up to the comments in the Evening Express on the day of the race?   They mentioned, Rhadi of Morocco, Basil Heatley of England, Everett and Tulloh of Scotland, Merriman of Wales, and van de Wattyne of Belgium.   The first ten were –

Three out of the first four wasn’t too bad – but Alastair Wood – from Aberdeen and a British track internationalist – was not one of their runners to watch!   The Scottish team was fifth of the eight and nearer to the fourth team than to the sixth.   Team results:

1.   England  52;   2.  Belgium  61;  3.   France  125;   4.   Morocco  159   5.   Scotland  171;   6.   Spain  243  ;   8. Ireland  279;   9.  Wales  279.  

Aberdeen AAC’s Steve Taylor raced three times for Scotland in the ICCU International: 1960, 1961 and 1962. His best performance was 35th (third Scot) in the 1962 event at Sheffield. He finished behind Andy Brown (9th), Aberdeen clubmate Alastair Wood (25th) and just in front of Jim Alder (36th) – the Scottish team was fifth.

Here are two photos: Steve Taylor’s memento badges, with the 1960 Hamilton one on the left; and his Scottish vest badge.

From the race detai;ls above, we can see that the championships were again split between the men and the women, and that again there were only two women’s teams forward – Scotland and England and Scotland.   It was again under the ICCU organisation but was again an unofficial championship.   The team was chosen from the Scottish championships held at Craigie Estate in Ayr and were won by Morag O’Hare of Maryhill Harriers from Betty Rodgers of Shettleston and Helen Cherry of Bellahouston Harriers.   They were joined in the international team by Doreen Fulton, Dale Greig and Mary Campbell.   Unlike the last running of the women’s international, the venue for the national championship and the international were different.   In 1957 the race was held at Musselburgh on the East Coast.   The result was not much different though.   The Glasgow Herald report read:

Dale Greig was eleventh and Mary Campbell twelfth.   The race had been held on a beautiful day with blue skies and not a cloud in sight but as Dale Greig said, “The occasion brought no joy for the Scots.”   

There were ten teams taking part in the men’s race with Scotland finishing eighth, ahead of Wales and Switzerland.   The Glasgow Herald report did not single out the Scots in the headline this time.

 Another Scots team that looked good on paper and in domestic races disappointed on the international stage.

This was the first international cross-country race in Scotland although it was not an official women’s championship.   Still not men and women at the same venue, the men competed at San Sebastian and the women in Ayr.   There were different dates (the men a week before the women and where the men had seven other nations to contend with, the women’s match was against England, and only England.  

The two team captains: Aileen Drummond for Scotland and Diane Leather for England.

The first women’s international had been held in 1954 at Perry Barr in Birmingham, and the second was at Ayr in 1955.   Both were unofficial but they were being held, nevertheless, under the banner of the ICCU.   However, regardless of whether we speak of the men’s or women’s race, a look at the results indicates their strength across the board.

The women’s team was selected from their national championship which was held at Ayr.   The result was a victory for Aileen Drummond (Maryhill) from Catherine Boyes (Maryhill), Elizabeth McLeod (Unatt), MollieFerguson (Springburn), Agnes Elder (Maryhill), Doreen Fulton (Springburn) and Mary Campbell (Maryhill).   For some reason, there were no reports in any of the usual newspapers  but fortunately there is a detailed one in Wikipedia.  The race result from that sourse was as follows

The team result seems clear enough!   The women’s race was the extent of the international in Scotland that time round – as already pointed out, the men were running in Spain and there was another disappointment for us.   The Glasgow Herald headline alone tells the tale.

The basic statistics for the race are above and the one to note is the number of events – only one race.   Into the 1950’s and after the Second World War there were still no championships at the top level for the ladies or the juniors.   This despite the fact that there had been women’s internationals, albeit unofficial ones, in the 1930’s.   I quote from elsewhere on this site: 

“Between 1931 and 1938, the International Cross Country Union organised four unofficial Championships for Women. These took place in 1931 (England, France, Belgium); 1932 (England, France); 1935 (England, Scotland); and 1938 (England, France, Belgium). Four more unofficial Championships were held between 1954 and 1957: these were contests between England and Scotland. For each country, there were up to six women in the team.“

You will also note that there were seven countries involved and the distance was over 9 miles, and the winner was Alain Mimoun. from France.    Mimoun, who really was a wonderful athlete, would go on have a genuine rivalry with Emil Zatopek in which he was almost always second to the great man. However  Alain Mimoun won the 1956 Olympic  Marathon title, when Zatopek was sixth.

The Scottish team in 1952 was selected on the basis of the national championships,  held at Hamilton,    This was won by Eddie Bannon (Shettleston Harriers) from Andrew Ferguson of Highgate Harriers and Tommy Tracey of Springburn Harriers.   The team that actually ran  had Bannon and Tracey plus Andy Forbes, Bobby Reid, Chick Robertson and Junior champion David Nelson.       How did they do?   They performed better than the team that ran when the championships were last held in Scotland (1946) and better than had been expected by the athletics oracles of the day.   The report in the Scotsman read as follows.

As in 1946, France produced first individual and first team.   They won the team race from England by 29 points (35 to 64) with Belgium third (126), Scotlanf fourth (151), then Spain (165), Ireland (243) and Wales (307).   The first three –

X

It was another organisational triumph for Scotland with all their runners finishing within 50 yards or so of each other for a grand team performance. 

Coming immediately after the 1939-45 War, the race was run at Ayr and was contested by six nations and the other basic facts of the race are noted above.   The other basics about the victory at both individual and team by France are below.

The race was the first international since before the War and the venue chosen was that used on the last time it was held in Scotland.    Colin Shields says of the race that it was a tremendous success and goes on to say “NCCS secretary George Dallas, who had attended every international and ICCU Council meeting since 1921, was the guiding light behind the organisation and Tom Fraser acted as Appeal Fund Secretary.   The French and Belgian teams had a long and tiring journey by ship and rail to Scotland, and the appearance of England, Ireland and Wales ensured a full turn out of all six member countries.   Scottish hospitality was fulsome, with teams and officials being taken to Hampden Park and Rangers football ground on the day before the race, with Glasgow City Council entertaining the teams to dinner at the City Chambers, and a celebratory after race banquet in Ayr Town Hall on Saturday evening.   To complete the overwhelming Scottish hospitality the teams and officials each received a beautifully bound volume of Robert Burns poems and a tartan tie.”

Programme cover and course map from Graham MacIndoe

The Scottish team was Jim Flockhart (Shettleston Harriers), Emmet Farrell (Maryhill Harriers), Bobby Reid (Birchfield, Willie Sommerville (Motherwell YMCA), Harry Howard (Shettleston) and Gordon Porteous (Maryhill).   All of whom were very good runners indeed with Flockhart having won the race in 19137 and Farrell having finished in the top ten in both 1938 and 1939.   The team looked good, but like the rest of the Home Countries, it did not perform well.   Read the Glasgow Herald report below.

The tone of disappointment that characterised comments on the Scottish team and its individual members, was mild compared to the criticism of Emmet Farrell himself who, writing in ‘The Scots Athlete’, said,  “The results of the International Cross-Country Championship threw into relief the poverty of British long distance running.   England were poor, but still far in advance of Scotland’s inglorious display … at the same time it should be said in mitigation that the bad weather and fast, almost track-like course did not help our boys … also the slip-shod arrangements made for them prior to the start were not helpful.   eg   Mr Crump, the English team manager button-holed a certain well known Scottish athlete personality asking why the Scottish team should be walking miles round the course on the morning of the race.   …   It is a sad commentary on Scottish cross-country running when the first Scotsman is only 15th.”

Colin Shields also picked up on Jack Crump’s point when he said “Scotland, not helped by their team manager having the team walking miles round the course just hours before the race, finished a distant fifth.”   Among the reasons advanced for the poor showing of the domestic teams in general and Scotland in particular were – 

1.   Severe food rationing in force;
2.   Except for Glasgow and the West of Scotland, there were no international class athletes anywhere else in the country.

Complete detailed men’s results are at the wikipedia page – 1946 International Cross Country Championships – Wikipedia

Mark Pollard finishing third behind Darren Gauson (120) and Derek Watson (134) in the 2004 Scottish Championships 1500m

Mark POLLARD (born 25.02.82) Inverclyde AC, City of Edinburgh, Belgrave Harriers

Appears in Scottish Athletics lists 1999-2017

Championship Record: 

Scottish Championships: 3rd 1500 2004,   3rd 1500 2005;   2nd Indoor 800 2000,   2nd Indoor 1500 2003.

Personal Bests: 800 – 1.54.02; 1500 – 3.45.0; 3000 – 8.20.89; 5000 – 14.38.61; Marathon 2.27.08.

On 14^th March, 2005, Mark won the 1500m (3.51.05) in the East District v West District match.

As an Under-20, on 4^th March 2000, at Neubrandenburg, Germany, Mark Pollard ran for Scotland v Germany and France. In an Indoors 1500m, he finished fifth in 4.03.08.

In 2008, Mark Pollard ran for Scotland in the Home Countries International Cross-Country at Edinburgh. He finished 11^th (third Scot) and his team was second to England but defeated Wales and Northern Ireland.

 Scottish National Cross-Country Championships

Mark Pollard (Inverclyde AC) became Senior National Scottish Champion in 2007 and 2008. In 2007, John Newsom was second and Alastair Hay third. In 2008, at Falkirk, Mark retained his title by one second from Tom Russell, with John Newsom third.

Inverclyde AC secured team bronze in 2008; and (by one point from Shettleston) won team title gold medals in 2010, when Mark was fifth counter in 19^th position.

 Scottish Short Course Cross-Country Championship

Mark won individual silver in 2007.

 Scottish Cross-Country Relay Championships

Inverclyde AC (including Mark Pollard) obtained team bronze in 2002, 2006 and 2016; silver in 2008; and won the Scottish title in 2007, 2011 and 2012.

 West District Cross-Country Championships

Mark finished third individual in 2011; second in 2005 and 2006; and won the title in 2007.

 West District Cross Country Relay Championships

Inverclyde AC (with Mark) won the team title in 2002, 2006, 2007, 2010.

Scottish Six-Stage Road Relay Championships

Inverclyde AC (with Mark) secured bronze in 2007, 2009 and 2010 and 2016; in 2019 the team won silver medals.

While a member of Belgrade Harriers (as well as Inverclyde AC) from 2008, Mark took part in: the English Inter-Counties XC, the Southern and National 12 Stage Road Relays, the Edinburgh International 4k Cross-Country and 8k, the British Athletics League Premiership/National League 1 and many other good class events. He raced in Germany, Belgium, Northern Ireland and The Netherlands.

In 2021, Mark Pollard is Interim Head of Performance at Scottish Athletics.

 Mark Pollard will turn 40 in February 2022. Surely a good Masters career beckons!