Governing body delighted as cross-country deal is extended

SCOTTISH Athletics has signed a new sponsorship deal that it hopes will help send more talented runners down the same road that Andrew Butchart and Beth Potter took to Rio.

Both athletes served notice that they were on course to become Olympians when they won their respective Scottish National Cross Country titles at Falkirk and that, in turn, has helped encourage legal firm Lindsays to extend their sponsorship of the Scottish cross-country season for a further four years.

Their original two-year deal was agreed shortly after the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and Ian Beattie, their chief operating who has what might be termed direct feet-on experience of the sport as a regular ultra-distance, marathon and half-marathon runner, indicated that their decision to more than double their previous deal had been based on the activity they have witnessed.

“We are delighted to be continuing our involvement with the Scottish Cross Country Season,” said Beattie, whose company also has an individual sponsorship deal with Eilish McColgan, another of Scotland’s Rio Olympians.

“It has been really encouraging to see the levels of participation at all age groups over the last few years, a trend that reflects very positively on the hard work being carried out at athletics clubs across the whole country. We look forward to our continuing involvement in the series over the next four years, and I am sure we will see further growth.”

As a hugely demanding discipline which, on challenging surfaces, carries some additional risks of injury but serves as a highly useful exercise for tuning and toughening up mentally and physically in winter conditions, cross-country became relatively unfashionable a few years ago. It has, however, been re-popularised in recent years, not least by the involvement of double double Olympic champion Mo Farah in major events. The successes achieved by Butchart and Potter have, at domestic level, now served to reinforce the benefits to be gained and Mark Munro, interim chief executive of Scottish Athletics, believes the backing from their sponsors can help them promote those.

“The partnership began a couple of years ago and I think in that period we’ve already seen growth in the events they are involved with, particularly at the likes of the National Relays and the National XC itself,” he said.

“These are key days on the club calendar and we’ve seen that with huge entry numbers, excitement in the build-up and atmosphere on the day. Over the past National XC events there have been more than 80 clubs represented at Callendar Park.” EVENTS

National XC Relay Championships – Cumbernauld Park, October 22, 2016

National XC Short Course Championships – King George V Playing Fields, Renfrew, November 5, 2016

District XC Championships – Inverness, December 3, 2016

District XC Championships – Aberdeen, December 3, 2016

District XC Championships – Ayr, December 4, 2016

National XC Championships – Callendar Park, February 25, 2017